My very first woven scarf!!!
No help. No classes. Just YouTube and determination.
I'm a knitter and crocheter. I know yarn from a knitter and crocheter's perspective. We have gauge and lace weight and sock yarn. We use needles and hooks to follow a pattern. Seems a natural progression is to weave next...especially if one has so much yarn that she'll never knit it in her lifetime. (looking innocent over here.)
I learned A LOT on on my first scarf. I made a ton of mistakes but I was hooked.
Lesson #1
Pick a yarn that is tightly plied for your warp yarn. ::headdesk:: I picked out some beautiful yarn from my stash. I had a soft grey wool hemp, Classic Elite Yarn Verde Collection Woodland. It went so nicely the lush Nashua Daylily (grey and burgundy ribbon) and Madelintosh Tosh Vintage Lepidoptra (burgundy) yarns. I got it all warped pretty easily thanks to this video on YouTube (http://youtu.be/fa1WrHOTjxY). I only had to start over once! I did my waste yarn and then... I was WEAVING!!! OMG!!! The shuttle was flying back and forth. Zoom! Zoom! I was beating each weft down. Yes...beating. I wanted a good and tight fabric. Zip! Zoom! Beat! Zip! Zoom! Beat! Repeat! I had six inches done really quickly. I was SOOO proud of myself. I was weaving!! I advanced my yarn and started on the next section. Zip! Zoom! Beat! Zip! Zoom! Beat! SNAP!!!
WTH!!! A warp thread broke!!! CRAP!!!
I didn't want to start over and frog my first attempt. So I tied a square knot in my warp and continued on. Zip! Zoom! Beat! Zip! Zoom! Beat! Repeat! SNAP!!!
CRAP!!! Not again!! I tied another square knot and continued on. Zip! Zoom! Beat! Zip! Zoom! Beat! SNAP! $#!@*%!!! Why is this yarn breaking?!?!?!? I took a closer look and I had a light bulb moment. The yarn was splitting and fraying. I wasn't even a foot into my scarf. It was looking too good to quit. I experimented with my beating and it kept breaking. I looked at my rigid heddle thingy (I now know it's called a "dent" and there are numbers on the dent!) and the holes were nice and big. But the yarn was rubbing with each beating I pounding the weft with. Which brings me to...
When weaving your very first project, (besides maybe picking a nice rugged acrylic, yes, I said "acrylic") do not warp 98 million feet onto your loom!! Be reasonable...warp a place mat or a scarf for your dog. A 36-inch warp is an excellent way to start. Do not do like I did and warp 100 inches my first go. That meant I had about 88 more inches to go with my breaking warp. Did I say I was stubborn and persistent? Well, I'm stubborn and persistent. (no comments needed from the peanut gallery!) I was going to finish this one way or another! Obviously, beating was out of the question. I had to find a way to push my weft down to the previous row. I needed something long and stiff and thick enough to push it with. Get your minds out of the gutter!! About that time I noticed a ruler calling out to me. That was my new beater. And it worked! I was back to Zip! Zoom! Bop! There was no more beating.
I was moving right along now.
In my exuberance and troubled beginning, I didn't think about marking milestones as I went. I'm a measurer. I want to know how much I've done and know how much more I have to go. Soooo...
Lesson #3
Place a crochet stitchmarker every 6 inches as you weave. I decided to use two different colors...one for the 6-inch mark then a different one for the 12-inch mark. I removed the 6-inch marker after I placed the 12-inch marker. That way I could count the markers and know I had 96 million more feet to go. BUT to find out where I was on this journey, I had to unroll the front bar to measure how much I had done. That's when I noticed my scarf was now a wavy scarf. The sides had more misshapen curves than I do!! ::headdesk::
Lesson #4
Watch your sides!!! (which I now know are called "selvages"). I am such a noob!! I had been careful to make sure I didn't have huge loops on the outside edges but I hadn't been real careful about how tight those loops were when I turned the yarn and did the next row. OOOPSIE!!! I think this is going to be a freeform fiber art interpretation piece. That's it!!! Artistic Interpretation!! Seems I weave just like I knit... TIGHT!
So much for the Zip! Zoom! Bop! :(
With each foot I completed, I learned more and more. My sides started getting better. I got brave and did a couple of stripes. I even changed colors at what I thought was a halfway point...4 feet. HA!!!
I finally reached the end of my mile. I loved how the colors worked. That's one thing I don't understand yet. How do you know which yarn to use as your weft and warp? Which one will be dominant? How is it going to mix together? My knitter brain got really confused.
It was nerve-wracking cutting it off. I was worried it was all going to come unwound. I tied knots in my warp to make fringe and spent a day twisting and twisting 102 strands per side to make some twisted fringe.
Lesson #5
BUY A FRINGE MAKER GADGET!!! Save your fingers and time and buy getting one of these cool things. (fringe twister). Though, I did sit there and have a Netflix marathon. I loved Marco Polo!! Lorenzo Richelmy is hot!!
Now my first woven scarf has soaked and hung to dry. I'm thrilled to death how it turned out... ALL 115 inches of it!!! Good thing I like them long!! I'm already thinking about my next scarf.
I know what yarn I will NOT be using to warp with!! LOL
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