Saturday, February 21, 2009

My Quirky Cashmere Scarf

This is the scarf I wove with Mom in Japan in January. Even she approved the randomness and applauded my doing things so against my nature.

Supplementary warps were added and subtracted randomly, so in parts of the scarf, there are lots of these ends, in others, not so.

In the foreground, you can see how the warp without supplementaries looked lop-sided; as I got used to Mom's warping board and we started winding quicker, the color changes became regular.

Selvedge is dismal. It was the first time I wove on Mom's super-light-weight counter-balance loom and her iffy boat shuttle. But the "scalloped" edges suits the randomness of the scarf; I'm sticking to this statement.

I'm sorry if the pics are sub-standard. My eyesight has been a bit crazy all week and I can't even tell if they are focused or not.

10 comments:

  1. Oh my! I do hope you are going to continue quirky weaving! Did you enjoy weaving this?

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  2. The scarf looks great! It must be super soft too - cashmere and all!

    Sue

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  3. I think it is super d-delish!

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  4. Thank you, ladies.

    Peg, yes, synchronicity and serendipity and all that, I'm about to take off in a very funky direction, though for how long I know not, and definitely not single-mindedly...

    Sue, it is soft as scarves go, but not as nice my normal 2/2 twill with the same material. When I first got my cashmere yarns, I sampled a bit, and vowed never to weave in plain or mainly-plain weave. A shadow-weave scarf on commission last year took some convincing myself because I knew the hand wouldn't be as lovely, but I loved the final effect, and texture was not as damaging as I had expected. Similarly, if I hadn't been in an adventurous frame of mind was I was in January, I would have rejected plain weave for the same reason, but there you go; knowing it would be mind might have helped as well as I knew this would be a more rugged (ergo possibly durable?) piece. In the first instance I chose plain because I thought the sup warp ends would be more secure. The bonus is, Mom and I found this piece to look very Japanese, and we knew it was more than just the colors. We concluded it was because so many of Japanese textile is in plain weave, but manipulate by dye (both before and after weaving) or embellishments. We think parts of this scarf look most like a man's kimono or obi.

    Dana, your seal of approval means a lot to me, you know that. Now I'm confident this is a cheerful, uplifting piece.

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  5. Hey, I love the way it looks! Way to go!

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  6. It's lovely Meg. In the true spirit of experimentation!

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  7. Thank you, Geodyne. This time I didn't even have to lie down. Much...

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  8. I'm so glad you got my attention and showed me this beautiful scarf. Wowie! what a lovely souvenir or your trip home as well. (home being where ever your parents are)

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  9. Yip. Fun, isn't it? And like you said, a lovely souvenir indeed.

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