Scarf 63 & Scarf 64 Get Married

Last weekend I went to Vermont to celebrate the wedding of one of my dearest friends.  It was an absolutely gorgeous weekend of tranquil scenery and lovely new friends.  Here we are with the happy couple, standing in front of Sunset Lake, where the wedding was held.  (And yes, I admit, this photo does make us look like we're auditioning for roles as hobbits and giants.  Let's just say there's a little height difference.)  

These dear friends live in Boston, so naturally I wanted to make them scarves as a wedding gift.  She had been weaving when we got married and made us the loveliest throw pillows, so it was fun to weave her a wedding gift in return.

Knowing they liked deep, warm, earth colors, I started by yarn shopping at Gauge Knits and picked up some rust and eggplant and red and brown yarns.  I started with Scarf 63 for the groom and decided on stripes.  I alternated orange and red stripes with a thin line of dark teal running between them, and used a deep, dark brown as the weft yarn (the one that goes side to side) to tone everything down a bit.  

Here's Scarf 63 on the loom.  Below you can see it all woven up.

For the bride's scarf, I went for a lightweight ruffle.  Using the same red wool as Scarf 63 and a mohair/silk blend in the same rusty orange color, I added in a stripe of dark, eggplanty-purple.  Hers was woven in a thinner stripe, with alternating purple and red, with just a few lines of the orange mohair on the end for a frothy look.  I spaced the stripe yarns farther apart than usual so the scarf would have a gauzy openness and stay very lightweight.  I used the mohair as the weft (side to side) yarn, so that the whole thing is barely held together with these very thin, fuzzy threads.  

After  weaving it, I carefully pulled the threads along one side to create the ruffle.  The openness of the weave kept it from being too bulky, but the ruffle still provides the dimensionality that I like.  I hope she does too!

I know I'm a sap, but I love the Beatles' song When I'm 64 and am so pleased that this love scarf happened to be my 64th!  

When I'm 64: My Weekend Project

This weekend I made scarves for a beloved couple about to get married.  I'll post the full deets when they've said their I Do's, but here's a little sneak peek.  

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 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.

Revisiting Ruffles: Scarf 40 & Scarf 45

Meet two new ruffle scarves with dashingly different personalities.

Scarf 40 is a confection in wool & acrylic - ruffles in gray, blue, and teal on either side of a charcoal gray stripe. Soft and snuggly, with the same versatile properties of earlier ruffle scarves and slightly thicker for extra warmth.

Scarf 45 is an entirely different animal - vertical felted stripes in burnt orange with soft ruffled stripes in speckled greens & reds. Scarf 45 is wide and thick but not too long, perfect for wrapping around the neck twice and tucking into a coat.

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 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.