Blending This and That Scarves

As much as I love bold colors and sparkly yarns, there are times when I want to weave something more subdued. Neutral palettes go with just about everything and never go out of style. Pattie Graver’s Blending This and That scarves from the January/February 2019 issue of Handwoven were inspired by a desire to weave a more masculine-looking scarf, but, as I think you’ll agree, these subtle and sophisticated scarves would look good on pretty much anyone.

Pattie Graver’s Blending This and That Scarf woven with only the dark colors in the warp and the light color as the weft.

Designer Pattie Graver’s Statement

Sometimes when I return from the grocery store and unload my purchases, I’m met with a groan and an utterance of “Girl food.” My husband, Don, wishes I would buy more “guy food” (a.k.a. junk food). One day, that got me thinking about how I usually exclude the masculine in my weaving. So, with a little of Don’s advice regarding colors, look, and feel, I set out to weave a scarf that, hopefully, appeals to the more masculine among us.

One of my favorite aspects of weaving is how you can achieve a different look by mixing, matching, and blending elements such as threading and treadling, colors, and fibers. With that in mind, I used a 4-shaft advancing-twill draft and wove it as color-and-weave using a random combination of the Colrain Lace colors Chocolate and Coffee, alternating with Natural in the warp. In other words, I wound off the 2 dark colors together but followed no particular order in the reed other than 1 dark end, 1 light end. For the weft, I alternated between Chocolate and Natural. I wove a second scarf on the same threading but used only Chocolate and Coffee in the warp and only Natural for my weft and got yet another look.

Colrain Lace yarn is a 50/50 blend of merino wool and Tencel. The yarn is easy to work with, and I found it to be remarkably tangle-free. I did have a bit of abrasion on my selvedges, which I solved by reinforcing them with Fray Check and weighting them with 3-inch S-hooks over the back beam. I used a temple to help minimize draw-in.

I thought a shorter fringe would have a more masculine look, so I left only 6 inches of unwoven warp on each end before twisting. If, after wet-finishing, the yarn below the fringe knot becomes frizzy, trim it for a neater appearance.

Happy Weaving!

Christina

Project at a Glance

PROJECT TYPE: 4-shaft.

STRUCTURE: Twill.

EQUIPMENT: 4-shaft loom, 10" weaving width; 10-dent reed; 2 shuttles and 2 bobbins (if you’re weaving the scarf with only 1 color in the weft, you’ll only need 1 shuttle and bobbin).

YARNS: Colrain Lace (50% merino/50% Tencel; 2,800 yd/lb; Valley Yarns; WEBS).