Just Off My Loom—a Scarf from a Favorite Designer

Late last year, I gave myself a wonderful treat—the new Mosaic Scarf Kit from Treenway Silks, designed by the amazing Muffy Young.

Not familiar with her work? Please go take a look at Young’s website and Instagram. If you’re fortunate you may see her weaving in person at a juried show (often American Craft Made in Baltimore in the early spring, or Paradise City Arts near Boston late in the year), or at a small handful of galleries around the country.

Young weaves scarves and shawls that wrap the wearer in pattern and color, using structures including graphic color-and-weave, doubleweave, deflected doubleweave, amalgamated drafts, echo weave, network and other twills, and turned taqueté. Sometimes she works in black and white and sometimes in hand-dyed colors that can range from soft to brilliant.

When a new picture of Young’s work pops up on my Instagram feed I feel like I’ve won the lottery, because there’s always so much to see and study.

About the Kit

The Treenway Silks Mosaic Scarf Kit comes with Kiku 20/2 spun silk and Alirio-Thinner 20/2 noil silk, each in black and natural, as well as the draft. The warp uses all four yarns, alternating the natural-colored Kiku and noil ends within round and rectangular borders for a rich but subtle texture. This is a two-shuttle weave, using the black noil and the natural Kiku as weft.

The weaving went smoothly once my loom’s auto-advance locked in (sometimes it takes a few inches of weaving to settle down). When I weave this scarf again I'll probably add floating selvedges, which Young describes as optional. She doesn’t use them, as they slow down her production work—but that’s not a concern for me.

My only real regret? The kit is sized for one scarf, and I simply wasn’t ready to stop weaving when I reached the end of the warp.

Hey, can you see a mis-pick? I found and fixed several, but I lost track of one that’s still hiding somewhere.

(By the way, this isn’t a sponsored post. I’m simply excited to share my new scarf with you!)

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Inspirations

A few of the things that have caught my eye online. Enjoy!

• Curved krokbragd (Instagram)

• Historic passementerie workshop (Museum website)

• Unweaving (Instagram)

• Loom music (YouTube)

• A tubular selvedge (Instagram)