Fire Scarves Finished

The first two of the Fire Series scarves have had their fringes twisted and been washed and pressed: the one with a metallic-look viscose weft and the one with a tram weft made of 3 differently colored, loosely-twisted plies. Both were experiments to see if using "effect" yarns with the complex weaves produced by interleaved threadings made a significant contribution to the overall look of the cloth.

Answer: no.

Reason: the interleaved threading warps need to be sett at least 25% closer than normal to get the color blending I want, and that means the weft is very much subordinate to the warp and becomes almost invisible.

Here's a shot of the scarf with the metallic weft, made by putting the cloth directly on the scanner. Can't see the sparklies, can you?



And here's a close-up. If you click on the image, and display the full-size version (or as close to full-size as Blogger will allow me to upload), you may see little white dots in the areas that are weft-dominant (the darker areas).



In full sun, I can see the sparklies only by holding the scarf at the right angle and looking down the cloth in the warp direction. The effect is so subtle it's practically subliminal!

The same with the tram weft. On the loom, I could only see the effect of the multicolored weft from one angle of view. Off the loom and properly finished, it disappears altogether.

My conclusion is that the expense of the "effect" yarns isn't worth it if I'm gonna bury the yarns by using them as weft. And they're too expensive to use as warp, because it would take 8,000 to 10,000 yards for a 5-scarf warp - that's about the shortest warp I ever put on the loom. I can't charge enough more for these scarves to justify the expense. Plain old 60/2 silk is about half the price of the special yarns. Especially the silk I ordered from Webs at Convergence, with a 20% conference discount plus free shipping!