felted rugs

All three of my rugs have now been machine-felted and are blocking to dry outside.  Here they are, at approximately 1/3 smaller and with a new rustic, shabby appeal?!

I love how the little knots I tied with the warp became felted fringe.
I was planning to cut it off, but I am going to leave it like this instead.

wool rugs

I am pleased to show you my new weaving adventure: rugs!  I'm using Cascade 220 (worsted) in the beautiful neutral Doeskin Heather for the warp with 2 ends per inch, and Cascade Magnum (super bulky) for the weft in a multitude of fun bright colors.

One skein of 220 is just right for warping three rugs approximately 23" x 40".  I cut my first batch of three off the loom a little while ago and here is what they looked like:

I'm kind of laughing now because I just machine felted the pink/orange/red one as I started this post, and it looks so completely different already!!  Stay tuned for a post-felting update on all three!

Twill Scarf

I finished my first handwoven piece, a semi-plaid scarf woven in a twill pattern.  I'm not sure if it can really be considered plaid since there is no repeating pattern of the three colors.  If you are unfamiliar with twill, it basically refers to the way the parts are woven together forming diagonal lines.  I have learned only the tip of the iceberg so far - there is a lot you can explore with twill.  It adds strength and stability to the fabric, and this is why all denim is woven on a twill.

I used stash yarn to make this scarf:
Black and charcoal grey wool
and poppy red cotton.

Schacht weaving loom

Recently I took up another new activity: Weaving! Working at Tempe Yarn & Fiber, it was only a matter of time. Soon after I took my beginning floor loom class, my employers found that they had too many floor looms in the shop and needed to make room for some new rigid heddle looms.  I jumped on the opportunity and so I became the happy new owner of this beautiful Schacht loom.  For practice I weaved off the piece that was already warped on it when it came to me.  Finally this past weekend I threaded my first warp (warp=lengthwise strands) since taking the class probably over a month ago. I don't expect perfection in my tension at this point and so I figured this would be a good time to use up some stash yarn. The color scheme is probably a little too wintery by now, but I picked it out several weeks ago. I still love it though!