Place Mats

Yep, you read that right.  Place mats.  I've been commissioned to make custom place mats for a friend of my mother-in-law.  She has a set of sturdy cotton place mats that she's had for twenty years, but the colors are all wrong for her current decor.  She gave me this swatch and asked me to make place mats to match it.  I spent a good two hours with Suzanne, the owner of Hill Country Weavers, matching the yarn and calculating how much is needed of each color.  The colors to the left will be the most dominant and those on the right will be accents, just like the swatch.  The swatch is a plaid and the place mats will be more of an asymmetrical stripe.  What do you think?

It's doubtful that I will get to this project any time soon, but I couldn't wait to share it with you.  The brown and gray houndstooth scarf that I showed you at the end of April is still on the loom.  I've had two bad bouts with poison ivy in the past two months, the second which had my eyes swollen shut.  Between these episodes I've been catching up on work and haven't had as much time for weaving.

I had a vague idea a few months ago that I might try to complete all 100 scarves within a year, which would mean making 38 more scarves by August 1st.  I don't think that is going to happen, and I'm okay with that. Besides, place mats do not count as scarves and I do want to prioritize this project.

Scarf 61: Another Adventure in Ruffling

Well, that didn't take long, did it? I suppose once I say I'm going to do something, it's easier to get around to doing it. Having a beautiful sunny day to take photographs didn't hurt either.

So now, at long last, I'd like to introduce you to Scarf 61. Do you remember when I mentioned buying a little bit of red yarn at Dallas' White Rock Weaving Center back in January? Well, here it is, all woven in! It was specially picked from among the hundreds of yarns by the friend who commissioned this scarf. The red yarn is a shiny cotton; the black is a soft and strong wool/alpaca/nylon blend , which was used in Scarf 59 and Scarf 23. Together they make a lightweight scarf with a subtle ruffle.

Scarf 61 is a custom order, so it's on reserve in my Etsy shop.

Scarf 29: Made of Sunshine

I've been itching to try some more houndstooth lately and I finally did with Scarf 29. I used my favorite baby yarn - a cotton/acrylic blend that's thick and squishy and super soft. The yellow and white don't provide much contrast, so the pattern doesn't jump out at you - it reads more as a subtle texture, which I like. It takes two colors that could feel flat and brings them to life. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

It doesn't get dark and cold here like it does up north, but having lived in Massachusetts I know how depressing it can be in the winter. I like to think of Scarf 29 as a little ray of sunshine to wrap around you to keep the blahs at bay.

Scarf 29 is for sale in my etsy shop.

Scarf 20: Texas Landscape

Today I finished a scarf that I designed for the Texas Museum of Fiber Arts. I submitted it for an exhibit called "Texas by the Yard and Yarn - Texas a Fabrication." It will show at 100 Congress (the perfect location for 100 Scarves, right?!) in October and November. It's probably very ambitious of me to believe I might get in, but we have to dream, right? As Isabella Stewart Gardner said, "If you don't aim high, you can't get there."

The design represents the Texas landscape - the rivers running through the hills and mountains, then flattening out and eventually running into the Gulf. It's my first design that's meant to represent something else, and it was an interesting creative challenge for me. It began almost 10 feet long and then I used the same ruffling technique from Scarf 17 to create the hills and mountains, leaving it just under 6 feet in the end. I ran a little line of extra shiny blue through the deeper blue cotton to create a sparkling effect in the river and ocean.

A combination of two variegated yarns made the forests and plains - one in various shades of brown, the other browns and greens. I used the same weft yarn for the whole scarf - a juniper green cotton.

My ultimate goal is always to make a scarf that will feel good and look good, so I wanted to recreate the Texas landscape within those parameters. I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Here are a few little moments in the life of Scarf 20.

Henry called tonight from a walk around the neighborhood to say, "I keep coming around a bend or over a hill and seeing a scene straight from your scarf! It really does look like the Texas landscape." Score. :)

Scarf 20 will stay off the market until I find out if it's made it into the show. Wish us luck!

Scarf 17: Rrrruffles have Rrrrridges

Ooh to the la to the ooh-la-la. Scarf 17 is so glamorous I can't even stand it. It's all soft and squishy and shiny and ruffle-y. But let's start at the beginning, shall we? Like all her brothers and sisters, Scarf 17 started life flat, as a series of long threads. I decided to try some asymmetrical striping, as you can see here, on the loom. That's black cotton and silver/gray acrylic. You can't see the sparkles now, but just wait.

The weft yarn (side to side) is the same supersoft white and black handspun cotton that you met in Scarf 4. Let's take a closer look.

Can you see the sparkles now? Sometimes they're hard to see when the photo is small - feel free to click on it to make it larger if you'd like to get a better sense of the silver winding through what appears to be a wide gray stripe.

After coming off the loom, Scarf 17 was subjected to the ruffle treatment, but she didn't mind. I created an off-center ruffle running the length of the scarf, much like Scarf 10 but without the felting.

I'm so super pleased with the result (can you tell?). Scarf 17 just seems to have it all - softness, texture, stripes, sparkles, and those lovely ruffles. I love the ruffles because they add such a lovely three dimensional quality without adding extra bulk. The result is a scarf that looks great no matter how you wrap it - ta da!

Scarf 17 is available in my Etsy shop.

(Blogger is being so buggy today. I hope they fix it soon, but in the meantime I'm sorry for things looking all wonky.)

Scarf 16: Pretty in Pink

Available soon in my Etsy shop.

Why are there so many scarves about rainbows?

The secret of Scarf 15? Rainbows. Pure rainbow happiness for cold little girls (or cheerful grownups). Scarf 15 makes me so happy. Henry says it is his favorite of all the ones I've made. I hope somebody nice gets to wear it someday. Someone who lets her friends wear it at lunchtime.

Here's the no-longer-a-secret rainbow ingredient: Rainbow Yarn!

See how nicely it plays with the soft and squishy turquoise yarn?

Here you can see the beautiful drape that the hand weaving makes possible:

And, oh that happy fringe! Here's a closer view of the fringe:

Happy happy, all around.

Scarf 15 is for sale in my Etsy shop.

This just in!

Look what arrived in the mail - my tax permit! That's right, folks - it's not all yarns and looms over here at One Hundred Things to Do - we've got some business going on!

But something else was delivered to my door that I'm equally excited about. Can you guess what it is?

It's a fringe twister! It's been taking me an hour or more to hand twist the fringes of my scarves, so I decided to invest in this little doodad. It cuts the fringe twisting time approximately in half, which means I can charge less for the scarf. Win win.

That there's the fringe on Scarf 13, looking all pretty in in brown and green. I don't think you've officially met, so here's a closer look.

Scarf 13 was a custom order - an ultra-skinny, ultra-long scarf in wool and cotton - and was sold on Etsy.

Scarf 7: Rainbow, meet Rain Cloud

Wouldn't Scarf 7 look great with a denim jacket? My cousin Zak says it's perfect because the colors are happy but not too bright. My mom says it's perfect because it's not too wide, so you can loop it around and around your neck.

I had such fun weaving Scarf 7 because the stripes are all one yarn, making it fun to see what's coming next! And I love the way the colors interact with the silvery gray lengthwise yarn (warp yarn).

You can find Scarf 7 for sale here, in my Etsy shop.

Scarf 4: Luxury Defined

If a scarf could make me drool, I'd drool all over Scarf 4. It's just so indescribably soft, it makes me want to make clothes and bed sheets and everything I own out of it.

Don't get me wrong - I take a lot of care in choosing yarns and treating scarves with special washes to make them all soft. I'm very picky about what goes against my neck so I don't want to make anything remotely scratchy. But Scarf 4 takes the cake. I could wax nostalgic about the softness of Scarf 4 all day, but instead I'll tell you the story of how it came to be.

Once upon a time, in a small village in northern Scotland, there was a small white cotton yarn who dreamed of one day becoming the softest scarf in the world . . . . Okay, no, not really. Here's how this story really begins:

Yep, just the same as other scarves: with a lot of threads that go one way and a lot of threads that criss-cross them going the other way, back and forth, left to right and right to left, until it's done.

I love all the little flecks of black and gray. It's so subtle and sophisticated. And soft. Did I mention that?

I'm seeking a good home for this little pet of mine. It's currently for sale here, in my Etsy shop.

Scarf 5: Pink and White Makes Everything Right

Where am I getting these post titles from? I don't know. (Well, "In Which We Learn About" is a reference to Winnie-the-Pooh, but the rest? Who knows.)

I love me a good houndstooth. Houndstooth is a traditional weaving pattern using two alternating colors in the warp and weft to make a pinwheelishy-check pattern. You'll see me using houndstooth in scarves to come and it may be more obvious. It's a subtle pattern in Scarf 5 because of the slubby nature of the hand-spun cotton yarn.

If you know me, you know that I'm not a pink person. I don't believe I own a single piece of pink clothing and I'm not sure I ever have (except for that pink footy bunny suit when I was young, a la A Christmas Story). But even I, pink-avoider that I am, love this pink yarn. It's a bright pink twisted together with cream and just a pinch of orange. It's so warm and happy.

The resulting scarf is a little preppy, a little artsy, and very soft. I'm very happy with it.

To see Scarf 5 in its finished state, you can find it for sale here in my Etsy shop.

Scarf 2: Would you care for some coffee with your cream?

Can you see the slubs? The hand-spun cotton of this scarf is a dream. In fact, this whole scarf is a dream. It all began on a Thursday (cue dream sequence fading) . . .

Late Wednesday night, I had the idea for the 100 Scarves Project. On Thursday morning I woke up and went straight to my loom. I warped up this scarf and got busy weaving. About two hours later my stomach started grumbling and I realized I was still in my pajamas and hadn't eaten breakfast! That's how much I love this scarf. It's better than breakfast. :)

I was going to a game night get together on Friday so I hurried to finish it. I took it to the party fresh from the loom (unwashed, unironed, untrimmed) to show it off and one of my friends immediately wrapped it around her neck (several times - it's very long) and exclaimed, "This is perfect! I want a scarf exactly like this!"

I was sad not to give it to her on the spot, but I had already given Scarf 1 away and I needed to hang on to a few scarves if I was going to get this business going. I spent the next two weeks photographing it all over my house and yard, in every light possible, trying to find the perfect spot.

If you're interested in purchasing this creamy, lovely, slubby, perfect scarf, you can find it here in my Etsy shop.

Scarf 10 - All Ruffled Up

I finished Scarf 10 today. It's appropriately named Scarf 10 because it took me well over 10 hours to complete, but boy-oh-boy is it worth it. I can't possibly describe how absolutely luscious this scarf is. See for yourself:

It has a row of wool running down the center, which I felted to create a soft band in the middle flanked by asymmetrical ruffles down the sides.

Only yesterday, when it came off the loom, it was flat:

It was so pretty and soft I almost couldn't bear to plunge it into the hot water, but plunge I did. It took about two hours to hand felt the wool stripe.

And now it's done!

You can find it for sale in my Etsy shop.

In which we learn about Scarf 9 and Making Mistakes

Last Friday, after two days of dreaming about making one hundred scarves, I gave myself a deadline: seven scarves in seven days. I'd already made three and I wanted a total of ten before committing to this project. Seven scarves in a week is a lot and I knewmy other work would suffer, but I wanted to see if I could sustain interest, talent, and output in that time. This evening is my deadline and I've only made it to nine. To top it all off, the last two were failures.

Yes, that's right. Failures with a capital F.

Why are they failures? Scarf 8 is not at all what I intended and Scarf 9 is not functional. Look at the photo up above. Do you see the hole in the scarf? This hole was carefully and deliberately made to allow the other end of the scarf to slide through so that the wearer doesn't need to tie it. It was intended to be worn by children or as a small necklet by adults. The problem is that it's difficult to measure the scarf while it's on the loom and the hole ended up right smack dab in the middle of the scarf, not only completely useless in this spot but an eyesore as well.

In spite of this, I'd like us to take another look at Scarf 9.

Aside from the misplaced hole it's sort of beautiful, isn't it? I had concerns about mixing these yarns, but I love them together now. This scarf is unsalvageable, but I can buy more yarn and make others like it. And that's why we're discussing Making Mistakes and not Giving Up.

This quote from Jack Canfield appeared in my Facebook feed today:

"As you begin to take action toward the fulfillment of your goals and dreams, you must realize that not every action will be perfect. Not every action will produce the desired result. Not every action will work. Making mistakes, getting it almost right, and experimenting to see what happens are all part of the process of eventually getting it right."

Wowza! Is that what I need to hear today, or what? I want to repeat it again, right now, emphasizing every single word.

Yes, I am one scarf shy at the end of week one. Yes, two of my scarves are duds. But the other seven? They're soft, scrumptious, marketable beauties that I'm proud to send out into the world with my name attached.

So here's to the end of Week 1. Here's to Making Mistakes. And here's to hopefully, eventually, crossing-your-fingersly Getting It Right.