The Dragon's Lair

You remember this drool-worthy warp?

And all my rapturous praise of it?

Well, my formerly-rapturous-feelings are somewhat less, well... rapturous. In fact, they're rather the opposite. There have been moments of grumbling threats involving large pairs of scissors to said warp, though it doesn't seem particularly intimidated by my scary threats and continues to misbehave.

It had that lovely, silky smooth sheen that the rayon gave it - but I failed to bear in mind that 50% was still wool. That particular fact is rearing it's head now. See here -

It's not just the fact that it's wool... It's the fact that it's wool singles, and in addition to that it was spun in that thick-and-thin manner. Doesn't look too silky smooth anymore, does it? That (and worse) is now how my warp looks in front of the reed, as soon as the beater has made a few passes. Fuzziness of that sort is not exactly conducive to clean sheds. And forbid the very idea of ever making a mistake and trying to unweave a shot or two. Good thing I'm not weaving anything more complicated than a straight twill!

Another frustration these obstacles create is making the weaving crawl along at a pace that makes a race between snails look fast and exciting in comparison *sigh*

I should have known this yarn was too good to be true. And to be honest, I think I had this whispering, niggling little feeling lurking in the background trying to tell me so. I believe this particular feeling is the one named "Experience" and, unfortunately, is not yet grown enough to make it's voice heard over Enthusiasm, Creativity and a few such other of the louder occupants in there. You would think that Common Sense would have shown up to help out Experience make some pleas in this case, but for some reason she was absent at the time.

I now know not to ever ever use this yarn as warp again. Amazingly though, I've only had one broken warp string so far. I expect some more before I get to the end though.

Despite all the frustrations, I haven't yet made good on my scissor wielding threats and am still gradually weaving on it each week after my guild meeting. I'm nearing the 30" mark now, so it's come a little ways.

I just fervently hope that the perseverance pays off and I have a nice shawl in the end, not a shawl with a warp so shredded that it's been pre-pilled before it even left the loom. Nothing for it but to wait and see, I guess.

I decided against playing with the leno, and "K" agreed that was probably a wise choice with this yarn. The accent chosen instead was to make some stripes on one end by reversing the 3/1 twill. Here's a look at how that came out (this also gives a hint at what the opposite side of the shawl looks like) -

When taking this picture, the stripes were already over the breastbeam and making their way down in preparation to wind on to the cloth beam before I finally remembered to take the camera with me one week. I imagine I got some raised eyebrows or funny looks from the last few guild members that happened to still be hanging around when I took the photos, since I had to lay on the floor to do so.
Oh well... I never have denied being a bit odd.

I shall update on how the shawl turns out eventually, but don't hold your breath - I don't want to be responsible for any blue faces out there. I hear there's a nice little snail race track not too far off, and on the weekends they even spice things up by bringing in some of those lighting fast turtles for a spin around the track! Maybe you could pass the time there while you wait ;-)

I could try to sound all clever and tell you that I'm choosing to show you these pictures on Valentines because the yarn is pink, or because I'm in love with this particular warp - but I'm really not that organized and prepared. I've been meaning to post these pictures for about a week, and it was pure and simple procrastination and lack of spare time that caused this post to land here.

This really is a simply scrumptious yarn. I've never had so much fun just from making a warp. The pictures won't do it justice, but I'll share them anyway. Here is the warp cascading down the front of the loom just after I finished sleying the reed last week ~

See all that shimmery, smooth, smooshy soft loveliness?? It's a 50/50 blend of wool with rayon, and it seems to have the best of both worlds - The silky smoothness and shine of rayon crossed with the cuddly softness of a good wool.

See, here it is again... Like shimmery pink pools ~

There is a bit of turquoise (or is that teal? I've never been good at telling those apart) in there too, as you can see. There will be a lot more of it in the finished product, as that will be the weft color. It's also the same rayon-wool blend as the magenta is. You can see somewhat better from this side how the strands are placed in every so often ~

All this breathtakingly lovely yarn is supposed to become a shawl. I hope the finished product is as lovely as this yarn deserves. Combining these two colors is something to tread carefully with, but I'm hoping the plan will work. It will be a 'two sided' shawl with each color dominating on one side by using a 3/1 straight twill. I'd also like to play with leno a little and add just a few lines of it on either end just to add a little extra flair to the shawl. We shall see how it all turns out!

This last guild meeting was the big yarn exchange party, so there wasn't much time to spare for working over at the loom. I got almost halfway through the threading, but it will be awhile before it's ready to weave since I only get in there once a week. The yarn exchange was a lot of fun though, so I didn't mind the delay!

I hope you all have a happy Valentines day! Don't forget to hug your favorite yarn ;-)