The Dragon's Lair

I completed my very first try at Summer & Winter about a week ago. It's certainly not an exercise in the art of perfection (or symmetry even), but I'm quite happy with it. I learned lots, and the young recipient is thrilled with her new scarf. It's pink & purple on white, with a touch of what PinkD and I like to call "Barbie Pink" thrown in a couple places, and even includes a heart! All in all, it falls quite well into the category of "really pretty" in her world.

Sometime soon I'll write up one of my detail abundant posts with all the particulars, but haven't done that yet. For now, I just wanted to get a couple pictures posted to share my excitement of having learned another weave structure!! So here it is, in all it's pinkness

I'll share closer pictures of the different sections later, but here are shots of the front and back of the scarf all laid out ~

And now to continue my tale of two scarves -

So now that my 2-inch-that-became-14-inch sampler was done, I could choose a weft. The double strand of 8/2 rayon proved to be the winner. I've been a fan of rayon for years. My closet (used metaphorically - I don't actually have a closet. But at least a metaphorical clothes closet only requires metaphorical cleaning, so it's a nice and sparkly clean and perfectly organized metaphorical closet... *ahem* Anyway, back to the actual post... My closet is full of a whole assortment of those rayon broomstick skirts, plus a few other items of clothing made with rayon. So weaving with rayon seems a natural addition.

So I set off, armed with my cotton tabby and rayon weft, into the world of overshot!

This was my first time with overshot, first time with a two shuttle tabby-and-pattern type of weave, and my first time with something as long as a 16 pick (*not* counting tabby) pattern repeat - as you can see, a lot of firsts thrown into the mix.

It was a little frustrating at first, as I didn't think I was ever going to get the pattern repeat memorized and would be doomed to 6 yards of continual referencing of the draft and counting of picks as I got lost once again. That smoothed out over time though, and I began recognizing where I was within a repeat and even eventually memorized it.

And this was the result - My very first overshot scarf - of persevering through this new territory:

The post-washing measurements were 55" (61 1/2" w/fringe) long, and 5 1/8" wide.

Another "first" that I added to the project was adding supplemental pieces to the fringe. This was a bit of an experiment as it wasn't an idea that I had seen used before (though I'm certain other weavers have done this before - I just hadn't happened to see an example or heard it described thus far). Bear in mind when looking at this photo that the warp was made 100% out of natural colored cotton, and perhaps you'll spot the supplemented parts:

I was afraid that the natural colored fringe would be too stark against the body of the scarf, so some of the brown rayon used as weft was carefully wound in to one half of every other fringe twist, giving it a bit of a 'candy cane' stripe. I have discovered that there are pitfalls to this idea (for example - it can easily pull your edge out of shape if you don't allow enough "take up" room at the top. It can also affect your twist some) and it makes the fringe take even longer than that already time-consuming task already takes. I was happy with the end results in this case however. Though I definitely wouldn't add supplements to every fringe - it has to really need it!

This scarf's journey next took it to another first for me - being an item for sale in our guild's annual weaving show and sale (PinkDandelion had a whole post about our sale, and even some photos of it, on her blog). It was a lot of fun to actually be involved in that, and not just a spectator this year. And to top off the fun, it happened that the purchaser was the owner of a loom I was using at the time for another project. I haven't actually met this person, as he isn't part of the guild, but we store the loom there for him in exchange for being able to use it. I believe it had belonged to his mother. Having a bit of a 'connection' to the new owner of the scarf seems rather neat to me.

This scarf's journey was complete now, but there was still more warp to go! Next on the list was samples - but not the same kind of sampling as before. What I needed now was a strip of cloth big enough to cut at least 2 dozen sample squares out of, to be affixed to the multiple copies of my project details page that I will be turning in for our guild challenge in a couple of months.
One neat trick that I learned at this point, from a suggestion K made, was to run a contrasting colored thread (in this case I chose some bright turquoise I had leftover on a bobbin) along both the warp and also used in the weft to mark my cutting lines. This is going to make cutting apart the samples SO much easier, and it made keeping track of how many samples I had a cinch too! So if you are ever making a strip of samples like that, give it a try!

Somehow this strip of samples managed to stretch from September to January!! As you can see, my heart wasn't really in the project for awhile. I would make a terrible production weaver! I'm definitely more of the "Ooh! Shiny!" sort ;-) As being distracted by my "Hidden Diamonds" towel project will attest to. But one day they were finally done! And it was finally time to start the last scarf!

And so next time, I shall bring to a close this tale, and produce for your viewing pleasure this final scarf. I shall forwarn that there could be another overabundance of the warm fuzzies in store, so if you don't like tribbles you might prefer to steer clear ;-)

For now I must leave you with one more "To Be Continued..."

Any finished object should produce those nice warm fuzzies of accomplishment, but the final item on a multiple-item warp is overridden with warm fuzzies and reason for a little happy dance as well! I have one of those sort of finished objects sitting nearby right now - my overshot scarf.

And just to make it a complete overload in the warm fuzzies department (I'm now picturing Captain Kirk buried in tribbles) this is also the very first piece of weaving that I made for myself. Yes, I have gifted or sold every single other piece of my weaving up to this point (though you must take into account the fact that I only have just over a dozen woven finished objects in my past thus far - it doesn't take long for that amount to disappear!). I recently also made a rug that I'm considering keeping, so I feel completely decadent and spoiled at the thought of having two lovely woven pieces in my possession that are my very own accomplishments. But let us wade out of the overabundance of warm fuzzies and turn back to the subject of overshot -

This particular warp had been on my loom for over six months (why yes, I am a little slow at completing projects). Though the saga actually begins back in the end of May 2008.
I was able to 'audit' (attend, but not fully participate in) a great workshop about overshot taught by Alison Irwin. If you ever have the chance to learn from her, I definitely recommend it! One part of the workshop that I was able to participate in, being an off-loom activity, was learning how to name draft. I'm definitely hooked! I used my first name just to experiment and learn on, but ended up with one draft that really caught my fancy. It was the "As Drawn In" treadling of my name draft. I therefor decided to warp up and dive into overshot for the first time, using a draft I had made myself. What fun! This also meant that I would have a much better chance of actually participating in our 08/09 guild challenge (which was to be overshot) by starting nearly a year in advance. I know myself well enough to know that neglecting to 'strike while the iron is hot' would mean that procrastination would then set in, and I would not start until a month before the challenge piece was due, bite off more than I could chew, and end up running out of time. Instead, though it did take me six months, the challenge piece is completed with over two months to spare! I'm still rather in shock from the non-procrastinatory un-last-minute-ness of it all.

And now, on to talk about the actual weaving ~
I chose the sett - 20 epi - and size I wanted the scarf, then did the calculations needed before pulling out the warping board. Next step was to wind back and forth the 6.5 yards of 8/2 natural cotton 131 times. I had mentioned the idea of using a black warp, but immediately received dire warnings about the headaches of threading a black warp from my friend & weaving mentor - whom I shall designate as "K" on this weblog. Figuring that, being a completely new weave structure to me and all, I didn't need to introduce additional headaches, I took K's advice. I still think black warps look incredibly neat, and will get to them at some point soon, but I do try to restrain myself and not make each new project completely and totally over my head - just somewhat that way ;-)

My wonderful sister PinkDandelion gave advice and lent a hand wherever it was helpful in the warping process. The warp went on with relatively few difficulties. Then I was ready to weave!

This would be where "Lesson #1" learned from this project comes in:
Don't get overenthusiastic and wind multiple bobbins of your weft unless you're sure it's the correct weft choice for the project!
I still have a few bobbins all loaded up with some lovely gray-blue, crinkly textured rayon. And I will use them eventually, but for now they are just hogging bobbins - because this yarn did not work as the pattern weft. My lovely lacy little pattern became a blob with the texture in the yarn.

This little goof also resulted in a much longer sampling process than I had planned. It was a great learning experience though! The sampler ended up being 14" long and containing 9 different samples:

If you like lots of little details - like what every one of those samples is - you can find that in my Ravelry notebook entry about the sampler. Or, if you aren't on Ravelry (though if you're reading details like that, you should join Ravelry!!) I have the list over on flickr as well.

As this post is growing incredibly long anyway, and I am now being called away to the duties of everyday life, I must leave this as a "To Be Continued..."