Lessons from the universe!

Scarf Exchange is something I always look forward to. Its a bit like having a second Christmas. You receive a box with fibre in it - full of potential. This year was no exception. As a group project, there were three plastic bags of fibre. the first was a soft beige brown wool tops, the second a white alpaca and some silk and the final one (mine) merino tops in black, navy and purple. I do not like purple. It seems that the universe was saying that I will just have to put up with it. I was not pleased but a challenge is a challenge so I began spinning a fine two ply with the intention of weaving a scarf this year. The note enclosed indicated a mostly purple item was wanted so I began by spinning up a little of the black as an accent for the scarf. I then divided the purple so that I had about two thirds for the weft with the remaining third split up to use with the navy for the warp. I split the navy in half and began spinning the first half then added some of the purple. The second bobbin was started with the purple and finished with the navy so that when they were plyed I would have a purple and navy warp thread that then became navy and reverted to purple and navy. The remaining purple was also  used for the warp. This worked out very well with the small amount of black I had for the warp.

                                   Woven on an old two shaft loom, set at 10 ends per inch in a 15 dent reed, the weaving was quickly accomplished and without incident. Though my calculations for warp were very close to what I required, the amount set aside for the weft was far in excess of what was needed so a ball of leftover purple yarn was sent back with the scarf.                                                                         

Now for scarf number two. Well strictly speaking its not mine but in order to get more people involved, I promised to spin the fibre of another very new guild member who has not yet learned how to spin so she could also participated in this scarf exchange. I asked that she search out a pattern she would like to knit and I would try to match the yarn required. It turned out a "double knit"yarn equivalent would do the job. Her reversible cabled scarf was finished in record time.