Closing out September

I finished the month with 12 completed pieces – 6 shawls and 6 scarves; all in rayon chenille.

As always, reds are very hard to photograph. I struggled to get pix that I thought were reasonably accurate in color. I did a run of 3 scarves I’m calling Pop of Red.

There are 3 different solids and 1 variegated red in the warp. Each of the scarves has a different solid weft.

Like all rayon chenille, these scarves have a marvelous drape and sheen.

They’ll keep you warm when the cold winds blow. And if life slows down enough, I’ll put them up in my Etsy store.

The blue scarves, which I’m calling My Favorite Jeans, use the same variegated yarn for both warp and weft.

Surprisingly, these were even harder to photograph than the reds. No matter what I did when they were draped on Dolly they turned black and basically disappeared. So unless I can figure something else out for pictures, these will not go up on Etsy.

I mentioned last time that I was working on a final run of 2 rayon chenille shawls. These go from a blue-ish silver to deep royal purple. I’m calling them Midnight Moon.

I purposely made this quite a lot longer than usual so that I could do that center back angled seam and still have enough in the front to drape it over your shoulder.

Before I sewed the seam I spent hours with some inexpensive doubleknit fabric I bought so I could try out different seaming and draping styles. I had decided that I didn’t really like the pointiness that came with the dart-like structure I’d used in the first two. After much playing I decided I’d take a tuck at the bottom; even though I knew that the chenille was much thicker than the doubleknit, I also knew it was better than the point.

Here’s the back of the shawl. I’m happy with it.

I didn’t remember to take a photo of the rayon chenille Midnight Moon piece that I sent to the Roycroft campus. It was an unusual length because I made a mistake I haven’t made in years – I forgot to allow for takeup in my measurement, so ran out of warp. My piece ended up roughly 21″ wide and 54″ long. I sewed it into something that I called a versatile cowl-wrap. I made a separate little card for it outlining some of the ways it could be worn: a single drape around the neck; include your shoulders for added warmth; bring it up over your neck for a hood; use a brooch to wrap it closer around your neck; wrap twice around your neck for lots of thickness.

UPDATE: I found a bunch of photos of that cowl-wrap on my phone. Here you go.

I’m moving on to other fibers now, and returning to some hand painting. I hope I can hit my monthly goal for October.

Parting shot: THAT DARNED SQUIRREL!