Finally!!!

How could I stand to take a blog break just as I started weaving my 1st-Time-at-WEBS Scarves?

Poor Jim had to endure my enthusiastic chatter all week, since I didn't have y'all to talk to about weaving.

I definitely noticed that each scarf was my absolute favorite while I was weaving it. With each weft I thought "I should do all of the rest of the scarves with this weft. I have enough."

Getting started with navy wool-silk weft

I didn't have the technical issues I'd imagined - yarns felting together, abrading yarns, broken warp threads, impossible sheds, differing elasticity.

(Or not too many of those issues.)


The poofy yarn fluffed up and sometimes caught in heddles or the beater. I sometimes had to snip fluffy bits off that yarn so that it would fit into the warp. Sometimes I used a T-pin to adjust the weft around a particularly lumpy part of that yarn so that the weft stayed mostly even.

First scarf with individually weighted strands of yarn (and floating selvedges on cones)

That yarn also stretched out much more than the other yarns. I individually weighted the three middle strands of it. Luckily I only had five strands of that yarn in the entire warp so I could afford to pay attention to each one.

In the back of my mind, I knew that both Robyn Spady and Sharon Alderman recommend different adjustments you can make if you have many threads with uneven tension in a warp. I didn't have to resort to those methods, but I'm glad to know they exist. I'm sure my day to use them will come!

I did cut off between scarves so that I could re-tie and readjust the tension. When I re-tied, I pulled each individual strand taut so that I would begin each scarf with even tension. I figured I could endure any tension issues for the 60 woven inches I wanted for each scarf. (Note: I usually like a longer scarf, but with the unexpected, extensive sampling at the start of this warp, 60 inches was all I could manage.)

Fortunately, I want fringe on these scarves, so re-tying doesn't cost anything. I untied the knots and used that section as fringe.


The first two scarves are off the loom! Navy wool-silk on the right and purple Earthguild yarn on the left.

I like both of these scarves. The navy, as so many of you promised, makes the warp really pop, and I get the strong vertical elements I was looking for.

The purple scarf on the left seems like a more integrated fabric, and is a little more in line with colors I usually wear.

Purple & Navy Yarns (two yarns on the far right)

These are the two wefts I used for the scarves above: purple Earthguild yarn (rayon, cotton, flax blend), deep navy wool-silk. (The pink and black on the left of this picture, didn't make the cut after my small samples.)

I have enough warp left for one more scarf, so I'm using ladder yarn in deep blue with shots of fuchsia, light blue, and green-yellow in it. When I did tiny samples trying to choose colors from my stash, this yarn was surprisingly both Jim's and my first choice - even though it veers away from my desire to have strong vertical striping in this project.

I wound it on a quill, just like I would any yarn, using Becky Ashenden's quill-winding technique. (I'm a recent convert after a visit to Vavstuga.)


It's like a party on my loom. I might have to keep this scarf, and one of the other two. I'm surprised that this yarn is strong enough visually to do interesting things with the very visually-strong warp.

I'm hoping to finish this scarf for its debut on New Year's Eve. It's all woven, and I still have a little more warp. I'm going to fringe-twist one of the other scarves, wash it, and then decide exactly how long to weave this one.

I have noticed that it's really hard to see what the scarves will look like from across the room when they're on the loom.

The scarves off the loom were photographed from about 10 feet away. When scarves are on my loom, I can't see them from more than about 5 feet away (by standing on the bench). It makes a huge difference on this project, where I care about how it looks from a distance of about 10 feet.

I am so excited about how this project is coming out, and I really appreciate all of your help getting me to this point!!

Related posts:
Asking for help designing in the reed
Project kickoff
Designing in the reed
Asking for help showing off the warp
Exhaustedly starting to weave samples
Dithering about which wefts to choose