Hansen’s miniSpinner #100 and #200. #100 is Lacewood and #200 is Tigerwood. Pretty, aren’t they?
Front View
Back View
Right View
Left View
Month: June 2010 Page 1 of 2
Wool/Cashmere/Silk Pleated Scarf
Are you tired of this series yet? If not, here’s the next (and last for a while, maybe) pleated scarf.
Let’s go for eye candy first. Click on the image for the full sized fuzzy goodness (click again on the new page to enlarge).
Yes, it looks a lot like the last pleated scarf (at the bottom of the post). But that one was in preparation for this one. What’s so special about this one? The yarn in the green/blue stripes is handspun Spirit Trail Fiberworks 50/50 silk/cashmere, purchased at SOAR 2009. I had just enough yarn to make one scarf with minimal sampling.
Yarn Source: Spirit Trail Fiberworks
Fiber Content: 50/50 cashmere/bombyx (it doesn’t appear that Jen carries this blend anymore)
Colorway: unknown (I lost it at SOAR)
Plies: 2
WPI: 40 (pre-finishing), 32 (post finishing)
Yardage: 580 (pre-finishing), 578 (post finishing); I used 504 yards for the scarf so I have a little bit leftover for a little something.
Weight: 2 oz.
As soon as I saw Anne‘s scarf, I knew that this yarn was destined to become a pleated scarf. I also knew that I had to do a lot of sampling before I started to wind on for this scarf.
Luckily, I had some Lisa Souza 100% wool lace weight in nearly identical colorway. Making a scarf with the wool would tell me if the grey weft would detract too much from the lovely blues and greens in the yarn.
Loom set up is the same in both scarves, as is the weft yarn (light grey tight spun cashmere single from ColourMart). I was, however, able to get about 36 ppi on this one.
On loom
As you can see, the grey did mute the colors somewhat, but did not alter it too much.
All stiff and unappealing, fresh off the loom
Unwashed sample and lightly finished scarf
I washed the scarf gently in the sink and line dried. I tossed it in the dryer briefly when it was almost dry to full it up. As you can see, it’s still kind of stiff and no halo from the cashmere. I was too gentle with it. The reason was that I didn’t want it to shrink as much as the last scarf.
Yesterday, I put it in a bin with extremely hot water (1/2 hot tap, 1/2 near boiling water). I don’t have a dedicated fiber toilet bowl plunger, so I used the only thing available in my kitchen — a potato masher. I abused it for about 15 minutes with a couple of dunks in cold water in between. After spinning it dry, I tossed it in the dryer with a towel. The halo finally came out.
Loom Length: 76″
Finished Length: 74″
I only lost 2″ in length. Why only 2″? In retrospect, it made perfect sense. This yarn has high silk content which prevented it from shrinking like the last scarf, which was 100% wool (blue/green stripes only). Duh!
So, what’s next for the loom? I don’t know yet. Suggestions?
Have you ever noticed that, every once in a while, you just get into a color rut? You find some yarn that you absolutely can’t live without. You bring it home, put it away, and then, bam! There seems to be quite a selection of that color, even if it is hand painted yarn, fiber, what have you.
Blues
Then I tried to shift out of my blues into greens…
Greens
As it turns out, I didn’t shift very far from the color wheel. I shifted from the red side of blue to the yellow side of blue. And those with eagle eyes will note that the cone on the far left is the same yarn as the lower-right yarn on the blue montage.
See that skein on the right hand side of the greens? It was 2 oz of Polwarth Luxury Blend that Jen snuck into my last order. I couldn’t leave it natural. I wanted a teal. But, as you can see, I put a bit too much yellow-green into my dye stock. And guess what, it turned out to be almost the same green as the green in the 2 collapse scarves: one made last week (center; Lisa Souza merino lace), and one that will be going on the loom this week (bottom; handspun Spirit Trail cashmere/bombyx).
So, sometimes, you just need a friend to kick you out of your color rut. Kathy picked out this Mountain Colors Targhee (Ruby River) for me at the Winery last weekend.
Does this mean that I’m moving into a red phase?
Editor’s Note: Snort! I just looked at the post on the website and noticed that the towels in the previous post were blue and sage green. I think it just serves to drive home the point…This color rut is rampant!