Early blooming Crocosmia in my backyard.
Hi Friends,
I’ve been working on some collapse weave handwoven scarves, trying to perfect the technique of using alternating cotton and wool in the warp. When washed in hot water, the wool in the scarf shrinks and the cotton doesn’t, giving an interesting rippled texture.
It takes a lot of experimentation to get these just right. My first try has a nice color scheme, but it’s way too short, and there’s not enough ripple in the cotton.
For the second scarf I made the wool stripes larger and the cotton stripes smaller, which does give more ripple. However, this scarf is still too short.
The length on the third scarf is good, and the ripple is OK, but I don’t like the orange, turquoise and navy blue color scheme. I think analogous colors work better than complementary ones.
It takes a 120-inch warp to produce a 64-inch scarf. That’s a lot of shrinkage!
The first three scarves are very structured, and I wondered what would happen if I went crazy with it and made an unstructured scarf. I’m not thrilled with this one, either. Even though the wool yarns are all the same weight and same brand, the different colors shrunk differently, which is unexpected and annoying. It causes the scarf to hang in a curve, instead of hanging straight.
The next scarf is a good length and has nice rippling in the cotton. But I lost some color in the purple yarn, and it has a tweedy look that I don’t like.
It looked better when it was on the loom.
So what’s next for these? I’m thinking of overdyeing this last scarf to see if I can get a more intense and even color without losing the checkerboard look. I wonder if I could also overdye the orange and turquoise scarf, too. It doesn’t hurt to try, right?
I think persistence will eventually pay off, but it’s sure taking a lot of time to get this right. I wonder what I can do with the experimental pieces that didn’t work out. Maybe cut them into squares and sew them into a patchwork scarf?
Where do patience and persistence make an appearance in your life? I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts. You can share them with us in the comments section below.
With love and appreciation,
Cassandra
I love your scietific observations.
LOL! Thanks, Helga. I guess I do go the extra mile to try and figure things out.
I love your perseverance and pioneer spirit. Nostalgia for the time when I was a weaver crept in. I did some of that effect too, so cool. I love texture and miss it. You inspire me.
Thanks, Claudia. I didn’t know you were a weaver. I feel that way about things I used to do as well. Or even things I do now but then I see people who are doing it so much better. That’s the down side to social media!
For the ones that came out shorter than expected, you could reimagine them as a sort of cravat, with a button or pin to connect the two ends.
While I am not the best at sampling for felting, what about weaving a shorter length – a square? Washing it and then calculating the before and after shrinkage?
(I have had to do this with felting with local wool. The plus is that one feels like a Scientist. The minus is that it takes time and materials).
Thank you for your thoughtful suggestions. I appreciate your ingenuity and ideas. I tend to jump in with both feet before I know what I’m doing! Thus the scarves that don’t quite work out. But you’re right — a sampling first would probably save me a lot of time!