Inescapable Spring (Scarf No.11)

Published on by Jen10 Comments

Hi, its me Abelene.

The Inescapable Spring is upon us, and breaking through the rain clouds are streaming in colors of the most vibrantly rich tones imaginable, the colors of apricots ripening on the tree, the gold sun kissed fruits soon to ripen to perfection before being plucked and bitten into. Señor Mirando and I think the Inescapable Spring weaving is definitely speaking of apricots. March has come in like a lion, and with cool breezy days full of beautiful weather still blowing through, Jen says she is going to warp another in the alpaca scarf series, because the mood is still on!

Abelene & The Crew

♣   Weaving Notes  ♣

Note from Jen: What I love most about this piece is that the colors melt into each other, with low contrast on the grey scale. I want to repeat this , the colors really surprised me in the end, I thought it was going to be too much color, but it all gets toned down in the intersection of the colors. This time I was careful to set the loom up correctly for direct warping, and it was easy, and it was the perfect length. The second alpaca lace-weight I have woven on the 16″ rigid heddle loom, and I just love the balanced plain weave, the sett, the drape, and the light buoyancy to the fabric, I still absolutely am loving weaving this series.

  • Yarn: Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud lace weight, in Zadie (deep gold), Bernice (warm pink to apricot), and Amos (moss green), 440 y = 50g
  • Loom: Ashford 16″ rigid heddle loom
  • Warping method:  Easy direct warp method for rigid heddle, 1 end in hole and 1 end in slot.
  • 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 Zadie, 40 ends Bernice, 40 ends Amos] x 2
  • Pattern Weft: [2.5″ Zadie, 2.5″ Bernice, 2.5″ Amos] repeated length in sequence.
  • Finished: 3″ hand-twisted fringe, then washed and air-dried hanging, and lightly steam pressed. Measures 76″ long (not including 3″ fringe) and 15″ wide, and weighs 121g. 
  • Yardage:  Total yardage used for finished piece = 1065y, figured from weight of finished piece and not including loom waste.

Inevitable Spring

Published on by Jen3 Comments

The vernal equinox has arrived, and the days are now racing by. Over the long reluctant winter, I’ve been spinning quite a bit, and these finished skeins are my favorite of them all, a colorway I want to spin again and again, this apricot & gold wooly confection. The dominant color mood is like the inevitable spring, through the grey of vernal rain clouds, bursts of amber, gold, and pink, create a rich deep apricot color all mixed together, and seems to define my coloring. Photographing was, as usual, a disappointment, impossible to grasp all the colors uniquely. The skeins have a little bit of a story behind them, and to get the spinning notes right I had to do some guessing, but managed to write them out so I can repeat this in the future. The sky is greying again, we’re expecting rain again, I am so in the mood to knit another sweater, but there is likely not quite enough yardage from this experimental batch, so will do another Apricot Tweed soon.

♣     â™£     â™£

Techy stuff for Apricot Tweed

  • See Speed Tweed #2 recipe carded December of 2023. The mix of pinks and amber created a deep apricot or terracotta color.
  • After I spun two skeins from the batch, I thought it was too bright for my liking so I put the rest of the unspun wool in the closet for a few months.
  • Eventually I re-carded the remaining wool, cut in with Wool Of The Andes Mink Heather Roving– the color of sand, about 100g I think, as well as some other colors I did not keep track of, but definitely some topaz bamboo, which I will do more of next time, for it creates streaks of shimmering gold!
  • Yarn is 2ply bulky weight, 400g total.

beret progress

Published on by Jen3 Comments

Slowly working on new prototype variations for the Chaltén Beret, and deciding perhaps just the beret overhaul, with redrawn charts, wider band, shown additionally not blocked as a tam with tassels, but possibly including socks, would be good enough for the pattern overhaul. Still thinking on it, just knitting (and weaving) and trying not to let anything bother me too much. These are totally addictive to knit and I particularly love how the faced band is the focus of artfulness, while the crown is instead plain. Casting on for another…

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