Overshot Scarves: Finishing the Work of Weaving

Overshot Scarves in Green and Blue Wool

 

Green Scarf: Highland Wool dyed green by me

Blue Scarf: Knit Picks Silk and Wool yarn dyed by me

Warp: black Alpaca and silk

I cut the overshot scarves off the loom a few weeks ago, and remembered there's still a lot of work to do before they are finished.

 

Hem Stitching 

I wound up just zigzag stitching the edges of the hems to secure them.  My hem-stitching comes out with a thick line of raised stitching that does not jive with the rest of the piece.  In fact, it sticks out like a sore thumb in the topography of the woven piece.  So my default is zigzag stitching.  The sewing machine is always up and ready to go in this house!

Weaving in the ends / broken threads

I remember this section.   All those T-pins holding a repair warp thread, hanging off the back of the loom.  At that point, it felt like I was breaking threads with every other throw of the shuttle.  I finally realized that 4 sticks in the DIY tension device on the back end was too much.  So I took 2 sticks out, and didn't have another broken warp for "miles" down the road.  ;-)   After that, I was also beating more gently, not wanting to break more warp threads.  Hence, some of the later circles are elongaged, and not such compact circles.  I'm ok with that.

Once I sat down to do it, it really didn't take long to weave in all those ends.

 

Twisting / Braiding the Fringe

In thinking about the fringes on these scarves, I decided I did not want to struggle with securing the ends in the hair twisting tool -- That's the hardest part of that operation!  So I was delighted to discover a braiding option -- one that can be done on-the-road while visting my Dad after Christmas.  

• See  Fringe Finishing Techniques from Gist Yarns 

One end of the green scarf was braided, and the other was twisted with my ultra-cheap hair braiding tool.    I used the pick to open the clasp that holds the strings.  

Twisted fringe does look better than the braids, so perhaps I'll just have to grin and bear it next time ...

 

 

The blue scarf came out quite a bit longer.  I think I probably was not beating as hard, and you can see it in the elongated circles in the pattern.  [MEASURE IT BEFORE WET FINISHING]  Because it was already longer, I did not want to add to the length with fringe, so I decided to hem those ends with a bit of black ribbon.  

 

 

Trimming the warp ends evenly.

 

 

Binding applied and ready to "flip" to encase the fringe. 

The binding only shows on the back side, as the woven black edge of the scarf shows on the front.

It might have been nice to use a satin binding for this purpose, but alas - I had no such satin on hand.

 

Wet Finishing

Here's the step where you submerge it in a bucket of water for a few hours, then wring out all that water and let it dry.  This step is crucial for helping the disparate strands come together and work as a cohesive team.

In the photo above, I lay the wet scarf out on a towel, then wrap it in the towel and stand on it to wring out even more water.  Then it gets hung to dry by the fire.

 

 

 Modeling the Finished Scarves

 

The blue one was a gift for my husband.  We both like blue.

This is the same Circles Pattern as the red scarf finished in October 2020:

 

 

Archiving this Project

I put the pattern, notes, woven sample, and the very long bead string for the treadle sequence, and yarn samples into a zip-lock bag for future reference.   I am already looking at the notes and bead string to set up the new project.  It's been helpful to remind me how I did it the last time!

 

Previous Posts about this project:

Looming

New Video Demonstrating the Bead System for Tracking Pattern Treadles on the Floor Loom

Something Blue

Mending Broken Warp Strings

Back on the Weaving Saddle Again : Beginning the Evergreen Circle Scarf

Preparations for Weaving: Running a Warp and Winding It On and Threading

Woven Red Circles Scarf is Complete

[Seems like there should be more than this ... if I added the posts about dying the wool yarn for the blue and green scarves.]

 

Something Blue

 

Starting the Blue Circles Scarf

I finished weaving the green circles scarf -- No broken strings in a few weeks (Fingers crossed!) so I decided to keep going.  When I put the warp on months ago, the intention was to do 2 of these scarves.  Now that the warp is behaving -- or maybe I've learned to work with it -- I can continue.  ;-)

 The beads you see above as a space holder in the Schacht shuttles when using LeClerc bobbins.  It keeps the bobbin a little more stable, with less back and forth in the empty space.  I picked up that tip in one of the weaving groups on Facebook.  

I dyed this ball of yarn last week with the intention of making is a deeper purple.  I was being careful in not wanting it to turn fushia, So I only added Wilton's Royal Blue cake dye to the crock pot, with a little vinegar.  This gorgeous blue is the result.  I'm going with it ... ;-)

 

This is what I started with, hoping the blue would deepen the bluer tendencies in this purple.  The blue is not what I expected, but I'm happy with it.  ;-)

The yarn is Knit Picks Gloss Fingering at 70% merino and 30% silk.  Though I have to say, it's hard to tell it's got any silk.  It just doesn't shine like I would have expected.

 I filled enough bobbins for what I thought I might need for this project.  The blue yarn is at least twice as thick as the black used for warp and tabby.     Let's see how much warp is left?  Did I estimate the loom waste accurately?

And away we go!

Back on the Weaving Saddle Again : Beginning the Evergreen Circle Scarf

Starting the Evergreen Circles Scarf

At long last! I am weaving again.  It's taken me a few weeks to get up the gumption to tackle the threading error I knew was there.  I have to wait for the weekend because I work during the week, and need the natural light to assist with clear vision.  Black warp is hard to see ...

Turns out I was missing 1 set of 4 threads and heddles on the left side.  That's why the circle in the first sample looked a bit off.  Hail to sampling and testing!   That also let me see that the yarn with a gradient wasn't going to work for this very precise pattern.  It took a good part of the afternoon to set things right -- and just a little bit of swearing, but ...   Now we're back on track and I love the way this looks so far. Whoo-hooh!  It is a very satisfying pattern once everything is set up properly.

 

Treadle Tracking Beads

Once again, the beads keeping track of the treadle pattern have been a godsend!  There are 72 steps to a single pattern repeat on my 4-shaft loom with 6 treadles -- and I use every one!

It's fun to weave once the loom has been warped and threaded--correctly.  It's still not my favorite part of the process, but I've made my peace with it.  If you are going to weave, you have to understand that warping and threading is part of the whole package.    I know enough now that I can fix the problems that come up -- though sometimes I have to sleep on it for a few days to figure out what to do, and the best way to approach it.   Like quilting, weaving is a good exercise in project management start to finish!

 Detail of Evergreen Circle Weave Scarf 

Yarn is alpaca and highland wool, dyed by me.  

 

Warp strings running through the tension device at the back of the loom -- nice and orderly!

Also satisfying!