Thursday 9 April 2020

Wool, alpaca and cashmere, mixed in hand-woven scarves

What amazing things come out of left-overs.  And they are a mixture of wool, alpaca and cashmere, all natural fibres.
I started by sorting the yarns into some reasonable colour groupings.  I then had to plan how to use the yarns efficiently.  How many strips of a particular yarn could I get?  Leave enough yarn for the weft.  And hey presto!  Three stunning scarves have evolved.
The first one, the bronze and yellow one, has three different colours in the warp, and one in the weft.  Limited yarns means this scarf is only 1500mm x 180mm and weighs 117g, but the rich, bold colours will attract attention.
The second on has its blue and navy blue strips in the warp almost  overwhelmed by the lavender coloured looped yarn used as the weft. A bulky feeling scarf of 1700mm x 185mm and weighing 155g is going to keep some one warm this winter.
The third scarf is a "liquorice all-sorts".  Seven different colours, four in the warp and three in the weft, hand-woven in a unique arrangement of colour and fibres.  Note the scalloped edge caused by the different shrinkage rates of the different yarns.  Besides its colourful appearance this is a relatively lightweight scarf of 108g, despite being 1750mm x 185mm.
These three scarves add to my scarves to be given to the homeless prior to winter.  However, you can buy any of them for $50 (or more) and I will donate the money instead to the homeless.














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