|
|
 Olive Oil infinity scarf  NY infinity scarf I’ve made two more infinity scarves, in two of Tammy’s handpainted colorways.
Both are handwoven from a bamboo-cotton blend — 2/3 bamboo and 1/3 cotton. I really like working with this blend. I like the way it drapes, I like the way it takes color, I like its softness. I even like the way it smells. Every fiber has its own scent, and to me, bamboo-cotton smells great.
Although I’m not particularly fond of having pictures of myself taken, I’m the only one handy most of the time. I wanted to show a few ways to wear infinity scarves, so it was me or me. You’ve already seen the double wrap and triple wrap around my neck — here are three more options.
 infinity scarf drape  infinity scarf keyhole  infinity scarf bolero
I’m going to make a much wider infinity scarf now out of 100% bamboo. It will have different looks and wrapping options.
I told you about getting my vintage Macomber 8 harness loom in pieces a few months ago, gave you a few stories about its assembly, and showed you some table linens I’d made on it. But I never showed you the loom in all its finished glory.
The Macomber is resting now. It has been for a few weeks, and will be for at least a few more weeks.
As it turns out, that ugly toe I dropped firewood onto wasn’t just bruised, I broke it. I spent some days when I needed to have the foot elevated when I could, then some days when it needed nighttime attention, and now I merely need to remember that I still am healing. The foot really likes to be in a sturdy Keen shoe – no mushy Crocs, no slippers.
I’ve been working on my lovely, little counterbalance, and I can do plain weave with my shoes on with no problem. The other day I decided that I wanted to do a simple twill. Much more of a challenge to do with shoes on. It’s almost possible if you don’t do a regular sort of tie-up, instead leaving treadles 1 through 4 with only 1 harness each, so that you have to step on two treadles at a time to do a 2-2 twill. But still not easy.
I wove several inches with the shoes on, and then said, “Hey, it’s been 3 weeks, take your shoes off and weave in your socks. You don’t have to use your toes, after all.” Well, I did it, but it wasn’t a great idea. The toe wasn’t happy. It made it through the rest of the scarf, but by evening it was talking to me, reminding me that it’s still vulnerable.
I don’t know that it’s even possible to weave on my Macomber with shoes on – 10 treadles and complex patterns require some fancy footwork. I’m sure I could do plain weave on it, but why would I, when my counterbalance is so sweet and easy to use? Besides, I can do 2/2 twills easily on the counterbalance loom by tying 2 heddles each to the first 4 treadles and treadling with my left foot only. So my plans for some clever-patterned bamboo scarves have been put on hold for at least a few more weeks.
Sorry, Macomber. Enjoy your rest! (This is my second entry into Carmi’s challenge this week.)
Let’s face it: nobody knows how to rest like cats. They sleep something on the order of 16 hours per day. It’s a fact.
This is my kitty, Magic. Magic is, in fact, quite magical. He’s now pretty old — he’ll be 18 in a few months. According to the cat years calculator, that’s something like 89 in people years. He’s not as beautiful as he was in his prime, but he’s just at lovable, a real sweetheart. Magic has both claws and sharp teeth, but he almost never uses them. The only time he ever scratched me was when I was trying to shove some medicine down his throat. And that’s all in the past; he doesn’t like meds, but he takes them daily without fuss or argument — vitamin B, PB8, and digestive enzymes. And that’s on a good day.
Magic just dodged another bullet, one of many in his lifetime. There is no doubt in my mind he was just a few days from death. He was sleeping constantly, wasn’t eating, wasn’t purring, was lying in the ashes and bark next to the woodstove in the basement and didn’t care that he was filthy. But he’s now infinitely better. He’s eating, drinking, and interacting. He’s not 100%, but he’s back on his way to old-man wellness. Here he’s not really sleeping, just resting, gathering his energies. He’ll be back up soon, wanting another snack. And I’ll be happy to give it to him. Along with all the extra meds he’s now taking.
This picture is in response to Carmi’s thematic photo of the week – topic: at rest.
Your turn: tell me about your older pet. Or join in Carmi’s weekly game. Or just send your positive energy to Magic.
If you’re a Rachel Ray fan, you know that EVOO is extra virgin olive oil. And if you’re an olive oil lover, you know that the color ranges for a variety of reasons, but in general, high quality EVOO is a relatively dark green, but lighter colored oils are also lighter in flavor, and might be preferred at times.
I’m not suddenly switching to giving you recipes or food advice; all that is preface to this new batch of scarves.
Tammy calls this colorway Olive Oil, a fitting name. This shows the major difference that changing the weft yarn can make. These two handwoven scarves were made on the same warp, a handpainted bamboo-cotton blend. In the top scarf I used a solid green weft, the same color as the dark green in the variegation. The result is a dark, striped scarf. For the bottom scarf has the same weft as warp, creating a relatively uniform plaid.
For the last of this warp of three, I used a solid bronze weft, hand dyed in the same color as the the medium color of the variegation. I wove this one in a point twill, while the first two were both a tabby weave. Actually, I had tried both of those first wefts with a point twill, and really hated them. There was way too much going on with the combination of the colors and the weave pattern.
I was happy with the pink infinity scarf, so decided to make this bamboo-cotton twill into an infinity scarf as well. I’m working on getting some more feedback before I make too many of them, but I do think I like them.
By my count, these three handwoven scarves bring my count up to 14 for the month (8 placemats, 6 scarves) of February, so I’m right on target with Jan’s Scarf A Day challenge, particularly since we only count 5 days/week. But I fear Jan’s been ill and is falling behind. Hope she catches us up on her activity soon!
As planned, last night I removed the final Think Pink bamboo scarf from the loom. I also did the sewing needed to make it into an infinity scarf.
Infinity scarves are also called endless scarves, loop scarves, and other names, but I like infinity scarf the best, so that’s what I’m using. Basically, it’s a single length of fabric that is looped back onto itself so that there are no ends. This means you can loop it around your neck as you wish, with no worries that it’ll slide off or that you’ll accidently dip the end into your soup. The winter-weight scarves are often wide enough so that they can be pulled up over your head creating a cowled hood. For spring and summer, I didn’t think that was appropriate.
So I made this handwoven infinity scarf from a soft and supple bamboo-cotton blend of yarn. It’s lightweight and easy to care for.
Here’s what it looks like looped twice around my neck.
And here it is looped three times.
Your turn: too long or short? too wide or narrow? too trendy? just right?
|
|
