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Scarf 57 & Scarf 58: Nice People are Nice

When I was in sixth grade my English teacher banned the word "nice" from his class. "Good" met the same fate. While I genuinely appreciated his attempts to expand my vocabulary, sometimes "nice" really is the best word for the job. Let me introduce you to two nice scarves that are on their way to meet their nice new owners. Scarf 57 and Scarf 58 couldn't be more different, but they both have nice stories.

Scarf 57 is a custom design for a friend who wanted a gift for her mother-in-law from West Texas. Wouldn't it be nice, she asked me, if we could find a local Texas yarn to make her scarf from? After asking on Facebook and calling around, we ended up at Gauge, a friendly little local yarn shop, where we picked out two lovely skeins of Texas Two Step from White Bear Fibers. This yarn comes from alpacas on the Bluebonnet Hills Alpaca Ranch in Navasota, Texas. As a dyed-in-the-alpaca Texan myself, I loved the concept of this gift and enjoyed every minute of making it. The yarn was perfect to weave with too - very thin but strong - making a lightweight scarf with elegant drape.

And aren't those colors beautiful? White Bear Fibers calls the sagey green "Cedar" and the variegated blue and green "Peaceful Cedar," but by any name they are soothing and sophisticated and subtly striped. (Thank you, Mr. Perryman - it's true that "nice" doesn't quite cut it when describing this yarn.)

But back to the nice stories. Ah, Scarf 58 - my elusive friend. Scarf 58 was dreamed up at the yoga studio where I teach. One of my students, in love with Scarf 17, asked if I could make a similar confection in sparkly pinks and purples. The scarf-to-be was for her niece, who was going through a very difficult time, and she felt the scarf might be a comfort to her. My goodness! What could I possibly love more than to make something comforting for someone who needs comforting?

I had recently heard about dyeing with Kool-Aid, so I thought that would be a fun project. Scarf 56 was the result and though it turned out rather well, it wasn't as sparkly or pink as desired. I started again, this time with pink cotton, purple wool, and lavender sparkles, and everything came out just right. Like some of the other ruffle scarves, Scarf 58 has a wool stripe running down the center, which, when felted, creates the ruffles. Here it is, still flat on the loom:

And here it is at last, all ruffled up:

I think my friend is just the nicest daughter-in-law and my yoga student is the nicest aunt. Not that they're the only nice ones around - I've had gift orders for friends, daughters, moms, newlywed-husbands, and soon-to-be-sister-in-laws, all from very nice people who were nice to buy my scarves. Sorry, Mr. Perryman, it's official: nice people are nice.

Audrey & Scarf 57

Long Time No Scarf

Greetings, dear readers! One of you sent me a message the other day that said, "I miss seeing new scarves! Any coming down the pipeline soon?"

Thanks for asking! As a matter of fact, I'm swimming in new scarves! With my first craft show coming up next week (gulp!) I have been busy making scarves and not so busy sharing them. So here's a little peek into my life in the last few weeks.

First, there's been a whole lotta warpin' goin' on. Yes, this is my new studio. I promise before & afters and more details later, but you'll see little peeks of it here and there. As you can probably tell, things are still crammed everywhichway and there are a lot of things left over from its previous incarnation as a guest/storage room (for instance, that bed in the corner).

That green line is yarn stretching from the loom to the warping peg on the opposite side of the room.

Newlin, having given up on any hope of a snuggle from his busy mama, decided to settle for proximity and curled up smack dab in the middle of my work.

My jar of waste yarn is filling up! Since around Scarf 18 or 20, I've been adding trimmings and cuttings to this jar. It's a nice little collection of threads from all the scarves. This was taken a week ago, so it's even higher now.

And this is what my table looked like this morning, in the middle of tagging, trimming, and measuring some of my latest.

And here they are - all the scarves you haven't seen, minus three in various phases of washing & drying. As you can see, I've run out of tags! I'm up to 46 now, so it's time to make some more!

I will be back with proper profiles and pictures, but possibly not until after Thanksgiving. Wish me luck!

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.)

Easy Being Green in Scarf Fourteen

In her profile for Ravelry (an online knitting community), my friend described her favorite colors as: "green, green, blue-purple, and did I mention green?" Scarf 14 was inspired by her unapologetic love for this most amiable color. Green is the color of new growth - so fitting for this project of mine involving so much personal growth. It is the first sign of spring poking through the muck of winter. Hello, green!

Lest this scarf take us into leprechaun territory, I mixed the bright Kelly Green (hey, my color!) with a variegated green & brown. It's still mostly green - the brown sneaks in through little dark stripes and subtler, lighter stretches - but it feels more appropriate for fall and winter. It will still perk you up on a dark day, but will actually go with your winter wardrobe.

Speaking of growth, don't you just love how the scarf grows from this tangle of yarns to the soft and suave accessory pictured above?

Scarf 14 was sold in my Etsy shop. It's going to be an early birthday present for someone who loves scarves and all things green. You can just imagine how happy that makes me.

loom in the morning light

And Now For Something Completely Different: Scarf 11

If you've been here before you've probably figured out that I'm a sucker for smooth, subtle neutrals - scarves that wow with texture and form rather than in-your-face color. It's just how I roll. Until now.

Meet Scarf 11: Miss Pom Pom. I've never been able to resist this pom yarn - it's just too fun, isn't it?

Here's our friend Miss P on the loom:

The warp yarn is a cotton/acrylic blend that's soft and squishy - it's one of my go-to yarns for knitting baby things and a perfect match for the poms.

One of my favorite things about Miss P is the variety of textures. I pulled all the poms on top of the scarf as I was weaving, so one side is a field of soft squishiness. The other side shows off more of the weaving, resulting in little scattered patches of threads. They're both soft, of course, but the differences gives the scarf a little more interest, possibly even (dare I say it?) a little more sophistication.

Everyone who has met Scarf 11 has fallen in love. Some have squealed and run right over to savor her plushness (not just teenagers - think women in their 60's). I can't wait to see who takes her home.

Scarf 11 is available for sale 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 3: A Comfort Cloud

It's hard to describe the magic of Scarf 3. It's like the softest spider web, but strong enough that you can wear it without fear of it falling apart. It's super soft and light. I tested it out in 107 degree heat and it was super comfortable. I like it because it adds a lot of texture and interest without any weight or bulk.

It all began with the softest, thinnest baby alpaca lace yarn.

Even on the loom it looks like spider web threads, doesn't it?

Or some kind of fairy magic?

Here it is woven and off the loom, waiting to be felted.

You can find Scarf 3 for sale here, in my Etsy shop.