Knitting Yarns into Handwoven Scarves

 

Sock yarns for knitting are often really appealing.  Especially when there is a knitting shop sale and they are a real bargain.  One of the great things about them is that they aren't too bulky to be used as warp and weft and their color repeats can be varied and interesting.

 

The two scarves shown above were woven by Ingrid Knox.  She found the yarn (Alpaca Sox) at a knitting store and had just the right idea in mind to turn it into scarves.  These two are sett at 10epi and woven in plain weave.  The color repeats make a wonderful, complex plaid as they cross each other.  These scarves are 7" x 84" long.

 

Dee is a fantastic knitter as well as a weaver who loves to experiment.  She warped her loom with cotton yarns from her stash and used Noro for the weft.  I believe that both scarves used the same Noro weft, but the warp is a different color combination for each of the scarves.  They are also plain weave but the Noro is finer than the warp, making them slightly warp faced. The ball of Noro was labeled "World of Nature", and although I know there is wool involved, I don't know what the rest of the blend is in this particular yarn.



Tale of an adventurous weaver

Dee Jones is an adventurous weaver who doesn't hesitate to use exotic knitting yarns in her warp or plastic bags as weft, should the occasion present itself.  In Dee's big bag of handwoven projects at September's meeting, there were some interesting surprises.  Dee loves to make handwoven bags and had been saving the orange wrappers in which her daily newspaper is delivered.  In the photo above, you will see the plastic bag weft puffing out at the selvedges in the log cabin design. Dee thinks that the handles are card woven - plucked from a long ago project; just waiting to enhance this bag.

Every year our local yarn store has a big blow out sale.  I have been guilty of buying a ball or two of this and that because it was so beautiful, but not knowing what I was every going to do with it.  Then it turns out you have all these odd balls that aren't enough for a project.  Dee has the solution.  She adds them as accent warps and leaves them floating free when she twists the fringe of the main warp threads.  This technique calls extra attention to their unique character.  Just take a look at  the exciting scarf pictures below.

She says the exotic yarns sometimes get caught in the heddles, but not as much as you might expect.  Dee warps from front to back and winds warps in chains of all the same yarn.  Then she designs her warp as she sleys the reed, dispersing the various yarns across the warp.