Sunday, June 20, 2010

Serendipity

It was serendipity - I ran out of warp at the same time I ran out of weft. Not a bit of either left. The cones and bobbins are empty. The ultimate in stash reduction.

And no real planning....

The unwashed yardage, seventeen feet 7 inches long and 19 inches wide, is a fox fiber organic cotton warp with a silk weft. Both have been in my stash closet for quite awhile. There are random differing pattern stripes every once and a bit to keep it interesting. I tied on to this warp to a scarf I had woven then discovered it was way way the wrong sett. After replacing the reed and and re-sleying in singles vs. doubles the piece has grown from 8 inches to 19 wide.

The yardage is in the washing machine as I write. I expect the silk should lose some of that gold color and end up with more of a green sheen. This silk, which I bought on sale, is not color fast. It was quite a surprise when I took my sample out of the wash; it went from gold to green. Yes, I did sample so indeed there was some planning.

This is yardage #1 in my stash reduction program. The program is actually a conversion program...converting yarn stash to yardage stash. I have been weaving less than ten years but have quite a collection of cones I have bought with the thought that they would 'weave up nice.' So I am weaving them into yardage and eventually plan to have a sewing marathon...

Weaving yardage is a wonderful break from tapestry and taquete which requires such intense concentration. Plus, none of those cones in my yarn stash would work for either of those two techniques.