Hi, its me Abelene.

I’m wearing the first finished weave in Jen’s latest series of alpaca scarves; she apparently got a lot of lace-weight alpaca yarn to weave a pile of them, in various colors and patterns, so obviously she’s feeling optimistic for a new adventure. Believe me when I tell you that this weave is so sheer and light and lovely to wear, the alpaca creates a depth of richness that cotton, linen, or even wool, simply cannot, and Jen thinks this is because of the natural luster of the ‘hair’ structure of alpaca, and the color saturation of dyed protein fibers. Hopefully there are still a couple of weeks left of winter in Paris, because that is where this alpaca scarf is heading next, as Jen wants to rush this off to her sister-in-law as soon as she photographs it … on moi!

Ta ta, Abelene

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣

Note from Jen: This time I tried placing pegs around the table, so I didn’t have the warp taking up the whole room, which turned the table into a warping board! I believe I could improvise this way for any amount of warp length within reason. As it was, without having the reference of warping this way before, I accidentally made the warp a little too long … oh well, I’ll do better next time. The very fine lace-weight knitting yarn weaves up into a beautiful light and buoyant draping fabric, I absolutely love it!

• Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud lace weight, in Elizabeth (deep red) and Lydia (brick), 440 y = 50g
• Loom: Ashford 16″ rigid heddle loom
• Warping method:  Easy direct warp method for rigid heddle, back to front, double threading from back apron rod through reed, then around pegs on table (a warping board). Wound on to back beam and finally tied off on to front for weaving. Rethreaded to have 1 end in hole and 1 end in slot. I forgot to measure the warp…oops!
• Number of warp ends: 240
• Reed: 15 dent rigid heddle reed.
• Width in reed: 15.5″
• Selvedges: I did not add extra ends to the selvedges, but did use a temple.
• Sett after finishing: Warp 16 epi, and weft 16 ppi.
• Color Pattern Warp: [40 ends red , 40 ends brick] x 3
• Pattern Weft: 5″ red, 2.5″ of brick, repeated length in sequence.
• Finished: 3″ hand-twisted fringe, then washed and air dried hanging, and lightly steam pressed. Measures 98″ long and 15″ wide, and weighs 140g. 
• Yardage:  Total yardage used for finished piece = 1232y, figured from weight of finished piece and not including loom waste.