White Bamboo Scarves Complete

Although it took a lot of talking to myself, out loud, I did get the white bamboo scarves woven.

I tried a few pictures of the finished scarf from different angles, but none of them showed the really lovely diamond pattern to its best advantage, although you can see it here in parts of this photo.

I didn’t have enough of the white bamboo to weave three scarves, which I usually do, I only had enough for two. In fact, although I could warp for two, I could only do white on white (both warp and weft) for one.

I have several other colors of the same weight and type of bamboo that I considered, but I ultimately decided on a yarn I’ve had in my stash for some time…a soy silk ribbon yarn.  (FYI, soy silk is a yarn made from the waste products in the tofu manufacturing process.  No idea how they actually do that.  Ribbon yarn is wide & flat.)

I’d not used soy silk before, and had absolutely no idea how it would interplay with the bamboo in the wet finishing, but figured I’d live a little. I also didn’t know if I’d like using ribbon yarn for the weft, as it would elongate the diamonds, but again, thought I’d try a few inches; I could always unweave it if I didn’t like it.

Since I’m showing you a finished scarf here, obviously I did like it. The soy and bamboo wet finished the same — no distortion. The soft, deep sage green soy played nicely with the clear white of the bamboo, resulting in a pleasing combination of bright and muted. The dark weft made that diamond weaving pattern really pop, and I didn’t mind the fact that the pattern was much more elongated than if I’d used a weft yarn of the same size as the warp.

As I was weaving, I was a bit concerned…my one ball of the soy silk ribbon yarn of that color was fast getting depleted. Fortunately, I was able to make it to the end of the scarf. If the scarf had been any wider, it would have been a minor disaster. I would have had to either unweave the whole thing or settle for a shorter scarf than I usually make. Thankfully, I didn’t need to do either.

I’ll definitely use both soy silk and ribbon yarn again. But not immediately. I have one more custom weaving order to make before I can start my regular winter production.

Your turn: have you woven with or worn any soy fabrics?