The Dragon's Lair

While the first scarf off this warp was definitely a "Pretty In Pink" sort, the next one made was the complete opposite - all boy. I present to you, "Little Boy Blue"

This was the second Summer & Winter scarf on my sampler warp for learning the weave structure. The new owner of the scarf seems as happy with his as the owner of the pink one was with hers.

The ABC/123 and the car were done by pick-up. The graphs were ones I drew, and I thought the results weren't too bad overall, especially since this was only my second attempt both at graphing and weaving a pick-up design. Here's a closer look at them ~

So what do you think - does it look like a car?? LOL That was the graph that gave me the most fits.

And concerning the on-opposites, yellow and blue bands in the scarf...
Yes, I have already been asked why I wove the Swedish flag into the scarf. It didn't even occur to me at the time that I was doing that, but, there it was!
If I had a quick enough wit I could have pretended it was on purpose and answered the teasing inquiry at my guild meeting with something like "It's to honor my Swedish great-grandmother of course!" or "Because the Swedish Chef is my very favorite Muppet." But then, if I was that quick on my feet I probably would have been observant enough to already have noticed the "flags" I'd woven without someone else having to point them out to me, eh?

Maybe I should call the scarf "Bork Bork Bork!" instead ;-)

For those of you that like all the nitty-gritty details of setts and yarn weights and the like, do not despair! A post shall follow sometime in the hopefully-not-too-distant future with all that sort of minutiae about both of the Summer & Winter scarves. But I just had to come show of the scarf asap!! :-) Bork bork bork!

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 ~

Yes, I do know that the word is actually "epiphany" - the above is one of the hundreds of obscure movie lines that I have in my head at my disposal for quoting purposes ;-)

I love that lightbulb moment when everything falls into place and makes sense!

On my Ravelry group Shuttle Moves we decided to try doing a themed "WAL" (weave-along) and chose Summer & Winter to be the theme. I'd never tried this structure before, though it was on my "someday" list, and figured this was as good a time as any - thus allowing it to leapfrog over the backs of several other projects that had already been lined up and slated to happen next. Never ever following a plan (or most instructions) to the letter seems to be a habit of mine though, so it's no great surprise that that habit spills over into my weaving life as well. So my at home weaving project - as opposed to that gorgeous magenta stuff that is my at-the-guild weaving project - became a S&W scarf.

After reading up on Summer & Winter for a few weeks I was picking up some bits and pieces, but the majority of it still might as well have been Greek for all the good it was doing me. You must be at the loom to truly understand what you're being told. I did some exercises, from a workshop written up and generously shared by Annie, where I essentially embroidered the pattern weft of the S&W onto a piece of plainweave cloth. That helped to shine a few rays of slight understanding on the subject, but I still needed to be in front of my loom, shuttles in hand. As of last Sunday, that's finally what I did!

The warping was spread out over several days, as is usual for me (actually, the fact that the whole warping process was under a week may have been a record for me! LOL) and had to also include some repairs to shaft cords, fixing of a twist between reed and heddles, etc. But finally the warp was on, tension evened out, minor loom repairs done, bobbins wound, and the half dozen or so shots to spread the warp in. I was all set to go! Now to see if I could translate this Greek...

(You're all holding your breath in anticipation now, right??)

And it worked!!! (Can you hear the stereotypical strains of angelic choral music as the clouds part and the sun comes streaming through to illuminate all?) I could see my profile draft appearing before my eyes. It all began to unfold in my mind just how the structure worked, and I finally understood it! Yay!!!

Once those first couple most basic exercises made perfect sense I moved on to others. I'm still working through some more exercises. I'm trying X's and O's now, and that will be followed by some two color work - polychrome, I think the book said? Then perhaps trying my hand at pick-up - most likely using Annie's suggestion of a knitting needle (to be stolen from my mom's lovely stash of needles... shhh don't tell... ;-) as a pick-up stick, since I don't actually own a pick-up stick. Should be interesting to see how all these different experiments turn out!

I'll try and get some pictures up soon. There's only about 5 inches of weaving, so none of it has even thought about disappearing onto the cloth beam yet... it's barely even gotten to the front beam! I'll snap some before it rolls on over. Don't expect anything too spectacular though. I'm calling it a scarf, but it's basically an asymmetrical overgrown sampler that looks as if there is no real rhyme or reason to the patterns scampering across it one after another. But I shall document it nonetheless! It's proving to be a fun learning process.
Stay tuned - More posts to come as the project progresses!

I am pleased to present to you... Drumroll, please! My Scarf!

As of February 2nd, it was officially done! Fringe, washing, everything. It's SO much fun to wear my (in every sense of the word) scarf - my weaving, my design, and even my name used to make the design! And the funny thing is, I've hardly ever worn scarves before, but now I throw this on every time I leave the house. I don't know why I never gave scarves a try before... They really are quite nice to wear.
I was, of course, able to go show my new scarf off to my fellow weavers in my guild. I've also had a couple friends that know I weave ask if it was my work. Overall though, the scarf half tucked into one's jacket is not a top conversation piece, yet it's still a thrill to wear it and know that I made it, even if no one else happens to notice. It's like this fun little secret to wrap warmly about my neck (warm fuzzies really are great winter wear ;-) and smile to myself about. Though if anyone did inquire, I would instantly spill my "secret" - so that doesn't seem like a very appropriate term for it! LOL

If you're a fellow weaver and like technical details, here is a list of most of them (and if this is all Greek to you, or you just don't like fiddly little details like this, skip the list and go see the rest of the pictures below!)

• Sett: 20 epi, ppi (not counting pattern picks, only tabby)
• Width in Reed: 6.55”
• Total # of warp ends: 131
• Reed used: 15 dent
• Sley pattern: 1,1,2,1,1,2, etc.
• Woven in: Overshot
• Warp: Unmercerized 8/2 cotton (3360 yds/lb.), natural.
• Tabby Weft: 8/2 rayon, white.
• Pattern Weft: A double strand of 8/2 rayon - one strand a grayish slate blue, the other strand a grayish sage green.
• Finishing: Machine wash, partially machine dried, hung to finish drying.
• Size on loom: 77.25” (196.25 cm) long, 5.75” (14.5 cm) wide.
• Size before washing, but off loom and relaxed: 74” (188 cm) long, 85” (216 cm) including fringe, 5.75” (14.5 cm) wide.
• Size after washing: 70.25” (178.5 cm) long, 79.5” (202 cm) including fringe, 4.75” (12 cm) wide
• Fringe: Twisted, with supplemental pieces added.

All of the changes between this scarf and the first one were in the materials used, not the pattern. The treadling was done exactly the same (except the one mistake I made in each scarf was different from the other LOL). The first scarf was adequately drapey, but not as nice as I had hoped for, so that meant something needed to change for this one. Either re-sleying, or changing the materials. I didn't really fancy having the scarf any wider, or loosing pattern repeats by removing part of the warp, so I went with the changing materials option and my tabby weft was replaced with white 8/2 rayon, instead of the cotton that the warp was made of. Another added benefit of this change is that it gave the areas of the tabby that can be seen an extra shimmer from the contrast of the slick, shiny rayon crossing the unmercerized natural cotton.

The other change, as is obvious to even a casual observer of the two scarves, is the color. The pattern weft was still two strands of 8/2 rayon, but it was a strand of blue and a strand of green that were extremely similar color values... rather than the two strands of dark brown from the previous time. The play of the green and blue strands together was interesting to watch. At times, they would fall in such a way that would give the pattern almost a beveled look that was quite fun to see - though most of that showed better on the loom, rather than now that it's washed and tightened up.
I didn't realize quite how terribly bored I was with the other color until I started the first few inches of this one. Suddenly my interest in the project was renewed! All it was was a new color to look at, but it was amazing what a difference that made to working on it.

The picture isn't the best, but here is my attempt to try and show the mix of the two colors... See if you can pick it out... Onecolor is just slightly lighter than the other -

I did a supplemental fringe again, like I talked about on the other scarf -

And to wrap things up, a couple shots to compare the front and back of the pattern -

~

And thus draws to a close The Overshot Saga!

Yes, I know that the next post was supposed to be the conclusion to the overshot posts, complete with pictures of my very own scarf!! But I am going to interject a short interruption to say that I started a new project today! Yay! Actually, yesterday, since that was when I made the warp. But I'm only going to tantalize you with vague little details, because I haven't taken the pictures off the camera yet of my absolutely gorgeous(!!!!!) new warp. But I will soon. I promise! I wouldn't tease you like this if I wasn't ever going to share, would I?? I just hope the pictures do it some justice, though it won't be the same as running your hands through it.

I had so much fun preparing this warp though, simply because I love the yarn so much! And I'm all excited about starting the project - though that will be a little on the slow side as it's not on my loom at home, but one off at the guild building.

And to top off the fibery fun for the day, I got to wear my new scarf for the very first time!!!