Lesson learned...

Always, always give washing instructions with handwoven gifts! The burgundy and brown wool scarf shown here was, with the best of intentions, thrown into a washing machine. It's small and stiff now. I guess there's always next year...

Christmas Presents - Part 5

OK, this is the last post about last year's Christmas presents. This present was from myself and is not woven. It is a four-shaft extension kit for my Louet Spring. Yeah, it's gonna be a twelve-shaft loom! I'm pretty excited. A month or so before Christmas, I started threading the Spring with some lace-weight alpaca for a shawl. Before I finished threading, I realized how close Christmas was, so I started weaving all kinds of presents on the Baby Wolf while the Spring sat half-naked. Now the Spring is dressed, and once the shawl is woven, I'll install the new shafts. I'm quite excited to get started!

Christmas Presents - Part 4

The last gift I wove was a scarf for my sister. The warp is Silk Thread from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, in the colorway Kavu Kavu. The weft is black jaggerspun merino. The contrast between the shimmery silk and the matte wool is really cool. The pictures don't do it justice. Once it was off the loom, the shimmer of the silk and the plaited twill design reminded me of fish scales. Anyway, the final product had a really nice hand. The silk warp and wool weft made an interesting combination of fibers, something I'll have to play with in the future.

Christmas Presents - Part 3

The next gift I wove was a scarf for my mom. This was woven on the Megado at Tabby Tree Weaver. The loom was already dressed with a navy blue tencel, ready to weave a Sharon Alderman draft. I chose some taupe colored Jaggerspun Zephyr. I found it somewhat challenging to keep an even beat. I'm not sure whether it was because of the structure, the fibers, or both. Even so, it turned out nicely, and my mom was pleased with it.