Monday, March 23, 2015

Scarf Challenge 2015

In February, seven of the Not 2 Squares took on this year's challenge.  The participants brought some yarn that could be used for a scarf in a paper bag.  Then bags were chosen.  The object is to use the "gifted" yarn in a scarf.  It can be as much or as little as the weaver wants. 



Beryl was the first one to complete the assignment. 




Her yarn, from Marcy, was hand painted wool in shades of dark green to almost black.  Since the skeins were different, Beryl used one strand of each skein for her warp.  She paired this with a fine mercerized cotton that she got at a weaver's estate sale.  Beryl says that actual cone looked as though it might have been 20 or 30 years old when she bought it - and she's aged it another 20 years.  She painted some of the yarn in blues and greens quite a while ago, and when looking for a fine yarn to use, this seemed a good fit. 
 
The fine yarns had to be tensioned separately from the wool.   To do this Beryl used an empty paper towel roll to separate them and weighted it with fishing weights.


 
 
Beryl used Fiberworks PCW to create this 4-shaft Basketweave drawdown since she liked the feature of thick and thin threads.  She felt it gives a better idea about what the fabric is going to look like.
 
 
 
The scarf looks great, the thick and thin yarns giving this fairly simple draft some interest.




This and the other scarves to be woven for this challenge are slated to go to the local foster children's holiday gift program.