Multilayer Scarves

The next project on the loom is warped and waiting for me to sley the reed, tie on, and start weaving. This is basically a repeat of the scarves I wrote about back in April (see And Now for Something Completely Different) in a different colorway.

The warp is stripes of claret and charcoal Jaggerspun Zephyr, which is a merino/silk blend, and a white mohair/merino blend of approximately the same grist - about 18/2. The Zephyr will shrink in the finishing, the mohair blend will not.

When I first began weaving the multilayer stuff, I mostly used stripes of the same 1-inch width across the warp. Pure laziness, because 1-inch sections are pretty mindless to warp. However, especially for the three-layer scarves with differential shrinkage, I like to vary the stripe width using a Fibonacci sequence. This warp is based on units of 2, 3, and 5, each multiplied by 4 to derive the actual number of threads. The warp will be sett at 20 ends per inch, so stripes of 8 ends (white), 12 ends (charcoal), and 20 ends (claret) make winding 1-inch sections pretty nearly mindless.

Here's a shot of the warp.



By tomorrow, I should be ready to start weaving.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll continue weaving the multilayer pieces. The first edition was designed and woven back in 1999, and although it's been a good product for me, I think I've just about exhausted the possible variations. I'll do a few more runs of the version that uses differential shrinkage for texture, and then it's time to move on to something else.

What will the "something else" be? Dunno yet. Stay tuned.