Salted Caramel Evolution

My curtain fabric is resting, while I finish knotting the table runner that came as a surprise end-of-warp project. Here is the runner, getting seven rows of Solomon's Knots on either end. I know...the one just left of center should be re-tied.

Meanwhile, I put a scarf warp on the loom. I began with a blend of softest merino/silk/yak fiber in cream, gold and brown and spun a two-ply, heavy lace yarn. As I spun, I kept the colors random, with bits of "barber-poling" here and there, in order to achieve a tweedy effect. Here is the finished yarn on the warping board. To the broad, salted caramel stripe I added two bordering bands of hand-painted 20/2 silk yarn in shades of pale pink, ecru and gold.

I used a 10-dent reed to reduce friction on the center warp ends--history has taught me to exercise extreme caution with my handspun yarns, and so far I have been rewarded with not a single broken end. Here is Scarf Number One, woven plain-weave, with a natural-colored 20/2 silk weft. I love the color and texture variations in this warp.

And here is Scarf Number Two, a twill, and my favorite version so far. 

A happy morning's work!

Progress

Art gifted me with some copper thread. It's so fine that I can barely see it while I weave, and it's a little fiddly, but I love it. The copper has added some body to the fabric, and just the subtlest bit of light reflection. Can you see it?

 

How about now?

When You Come to a Fork in the Road...

You may have noticed the new look here. Hope you like it. The background is a photograph of my long-lamented persimmon-dyed warp, finally shaping up into something I am not afraid to show. I began winding it on last spring with a vague idea about a lacy curtain fabric for our front door. I didn't like the threading or the sett, so I re-threaded and re-thought, and became paralyzed by indecision. (Look it up and you will find more than 400,000 Google search results for "paralyzed by indecision.")

I found a threading I almost liked, and treadled a few samples, but Art didn't cotton to any of them (no pun, folks, since the fiber content is mostly silk and ramie, with only the tiniest smidge of cotton) and neither did I. It felt wrong, so I let it sit. Time passed, and a solution did not present itself. I was tempted to take it off the loom altogether, but after all that threading and sampling, I just couldn't. And then, after such a long time it embarrasses me to say, I did something...anything. I sat down and just started to weave it off in plain weave. And surprise...I like the fabric best this way.

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. Whenever indecision or fear has plagued me in the past, I have forced myself to jump in head-first, with no expectations about the results. I've always advised my daughter Davi to do the same--as Yogi Berra says, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it"--and here I had been ignoring that advice. Well, we all know books are written about this. I'm happy to say I'm moving on.

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I've also been spinning lots of scrumptious yarn, including this Navajo-plied Shetland wool that for some reason reminds me of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (my hometown)...

...and this 50/50 Bluefaced Leicester/silk blend...

...which I call "Dancing on Walnuts," and which Davi has already earmarked for herself.