So & Sew

I usually wait to post till pieces are finished, but it’s been too long since I’ve posted and I have a lot of work to do still to finish things.

So. In my last post I showed you a photo of the yarn that I would use next to weave some scarves. The weaving went ok, although I ended up doing some needle weaving, which, as you know, is not my favorite thing to do and I’m slow at it. But it got done.

Seems like finishing it should be simple, right? Not! My go-to finish for scarf is twisted fringe. But just like that wouldn’t work with those rayon seed scarves, it also wouldn’t work with these three. The main yarn used is a rayon boucle that has a gold metallic thread throughout its length, sometimes wrapped around the rayon tightly for 1/2″ or so. Looks really nice in the fabric, but that wrapping means that it will not make a neat twisted fringe – stiff spots in the yarn. (Sorry that I couldn’t get a decent photo so you could really see the yarn well.)

I tried braiding the fancy yarn. Nope, that doesn’t work either. I tried various knotting techniques with larger and smaller bundles of yarn. Nope. So the scarves sat, waiting for me to get inspired on how to finish them. Many days later it was clear the inspiration would not arrive.

So. I set myself up and made a single overhand knot in each strand of the fancy yarn. Then I cut them all to the same length. I tried doing a similar thing with the tencel on the selvedges. That didn’t look good, so I did my usual twisted fringe with those ends. Now I plan to put a tiny dab of FrayStop on each end of the fancy yarn. Tedious, for sure. Then I will wet finish this one scarf before I decide what to do with the other two. I may end up hemming them with no fringe.

Lesson here: use yarn that won’t fringe well for weft, not warp. Wonder if I can remember this next time I have some really cool yarn. 😉

Meanwhile, Susan Poague, a woman I’ve communicated with on and off for a few years and did some custom dyeing for me, had an article published in the latest Handwoven magazine about her turned taquete circles. Susan and I emailed back and forth about the circles draft back in 2016, and I ended up weaving a scarf using a modified draft, but I had some issues with it and wasn’t happy with the outcome.

Still, every time Susan blogged about it, I loved her results. So when the Handwoven issue came out, especially given my stall on those scarves, I decided it was time to weave another batch of towels, in circles. I put on a warp for 8 towels and wove them off.

Here they are washed and dried, awaiting hemming (sewing) and pressing.

Don’t they bring a smile to your face? I believe they will improve the mood in all kitchens that they grace.

Usually I do this kind of work (the tedious dipping of each end in FrayCheck and the hand hemming) in the evening, when I can sit in front of the TV. But today I’m going to take my work outside and do it now. My OCD self needs some closure, and the towels will be a sure success, even if the scarf isn’t.

And that’s my so and sew.