A slubby scarf

December was a "project month" in The Sheepspotters' Society. I decided to use the skein of slubby yarn I made in November in a scarf for S1, since she admired it so much. In order to highlight the weft, I chose a skinnier warp yarn. S1 wanted a riotously colorful warp (not just one color), so I pulled out these sock yarn leftovers:

I  threaded an irregular warp, just changing colors whenever I felt like it:

Then I started weaving. Liz Gipson suggested that I use a strand of sock yarn along with the slub yarn in the left, in order to create a stronger web of fabric. I started off holding those two strands together, like this:

I wasn't sure that was right, and sure enough, it wasn't. I undid that part and started again, getting something more like this:

Better!

This project went really fast. My target was a finished scarf of 55" long (plus fringe) and 6" wide. I made a 60" guide and wove to that... but the off-the-loom measurement was 53"L x 6.625" W, and the finished (after washing) measurement was 49" L x 6.25" W. What happened?

In my planning, I calculated 10" shrinkage and 10% take-up. My mistake was in the guide. I should have put those 20% into the guide, but I only put about half of that into it. I should have used a 67" guide (or so) instead of 60". I knew something was a little off when I had so much warp left over, but I had already worked my hem stitch and just barreled onward. I should have listened to my gut.

The scarf isn't unwearable... it's just not as long as we wanted it to be. This is more of a decorative piece than a keep-warm-in-a-blizzard piece. But it works okay, and I learned something.

I was so worried about running out of yarn, and that turns out to be laughable. I had 142 yards and 94 grams to begin with... and at the end, I had 99 yards and 66 grams! Part of this is because I used this AND a sock yarn in the weft, and part of it is that I made it too short. Can you believe I only used 43 yards of my handspun? That's not going to spin down the stash anytime soon.

Since I still have some, there's really no reason I can't just play with it. Maybe I'll warp up some of Tamarind's fleece (the deep chocolate brown I spun for my Humulus sweater) - I have lots of that left - and use only the slubby yarn in the weft. Just weave until it's gone. That will look very different. Why not, right?

I'll file that idea. I have another weaving project on the big loom now... more on that soon.