Short & Sweet [Scarf 45]

Another quickie post tonight⁹ 'cause once again I'm writing in the wee hours. Believe it or not, I actually finished this scarf early this evening - early enough, in fact, that Ron and I were finally able to go see Avatar.¹

Oh, wait! You have to believe me since I wove this one on Weaving In My Jammies again and therefore have video evidence of when it was done! ;) Speaking of which, you may have discovered WIMJ is now embedded over there ---> in the sidebar. I don't know if I'm going to leave it there or not; it's a bit obtrusive and that giant eye ... well, it's a bit creepy.² Still, the embedded thingie might encourage folks to stop in and chat while I'm weaving, which would be ever so keen! Consider that a thinly veiled hint if you like. :)

But I digress! Back to today's scarf, which was also a quickie for a couple of reasons. First was that I discovered this well after I'd started winding my pirn:



Srlsy, what the heck happened here?? Do we have some kind of rare acrylic-eating moth in Atlantic Canada that no one ever told me about? Did the cats sneak into the yarn room and rub sandpaper vigorously over the end of this one spool? Was I so out of it on Tuesday that I actually gnawed on the yarns I intended to use for weft? I have no idea. Regardless of the cause, the state of this spool meant that I only got my pirn about 2/3rds full before I hit the first break and after that there really didn't seem to be much point in trying to use any more of it.

This is a colour I use a lot, though, so I just planned to make appropriate sacrifices to the yarn dye lot gods and finish the scarf with another spool of the same shade... until the second reason this scarf is so short reared its head: I somehow miscalculated on the length of the warp. Tuesday's all a bit vague but I know my reasoning went something like this: "Three scarves at 72" + 12" fringe between = 3 x 84" = 7 yards warp. I need some for loom waste (but not too much, since 12" of those fringes will come out of it) so I need 7 yards anna bit. This guide string is 8 yards long, so if I put this end round this peg but wind my warp round that one, and then just wrap this extra bit here around this other peg to shorten it up a bit more... yes, that should give me 7 anna bit."


That's all a bit dodgy, I'll grant you, but that's just how I roll. And you know, usually it works out fine. Tuesday, though... on Tuesday, all bets were off. I don't know which part of that logic fell down. Right now, at 2 in the morning, it all seems to make sense.³ For all I know the guide string wasn't even 8 yards to begin with, tho' I did measure it. At any rate, round about the time my stubby 2/3rds full pirn was running out, I looked at the back of the loom and discovered my warp was running out right along with it. I could have gotten another 8 or 9 inches woven but, given the woebegone state of my weft spool and my distinct lack of faith in yarn dye lot gods, I decided to just cut my losses and go with a short scarf. It will be exactly the right length for some woman of small stature, or for some woman who prefers to wear her scarf just round the back of her neck rather than round-and-round-and-round.

So! The specs: this one was still 90 ends of 8/4 and boucle sleyed at 12 EPI in an 8 dent reed (so 7.5" in the reed) and once again woven with 8/2 orlon. This time, however, the scarf was only 56" long rather than the 72" I was aiming for. I used the yellow spool in the pic from yesterday's post and although it seems incongruously spring-y when there's snow on the ground outside, it does make me think of sunshine and new buds and tiny flowers - and there's nothing at all wrong with that on a cold February day.



You know what's interesting? This picture is exactly what this scarf looks like up close & personal but from where I'm sitting right now, just three or four feet from the loom, it looks totally different. I bet once it's washed it'll look more like that <--- than that ^.

Not sure yet what I'll do tomorrow, but I'm thinking perhaps something light blue in honour of the 10' tall blue dudes from Avatar. Maybe with a bit of gold or green or black like their eyes? And I might see about some kind of shiny, slinky white stuff for the little phosphorescent dots on their skin. Of course, if I really wanted to represent them well, I'd just weave with fibre optic cable... but I haven't got any of that, so I'll just stick with Plan A.

On the other hand, I was also thinking I might weave another scarf on my rigid heddle since I hate to warp the floor loom for only one scarf but I really want to weave either some placemats or some napkins over the weekend. I'm not sure how well I can implement blue/green/yellow/slinky in yarns that'd do well in my Knitter's Loom, so the Avatar scarf may have to wait. On va voir!

Project February

A few more folks have signed on to Project February so, lest I forget to link to their blogs when they post something new, I've added a blog roll in the sidebar over there --->⁴ I also tried adding a twitter search for #ProjectFebruary over there but - surprise, surprise! - it turns out that I/we are not the only folks with a project so named so I changed it to a #Scarfaday search instead. I will likely keep fiddling about with these things over the next days and weeks, so keep an eye on the sidebar for excitin' new haps.

Here are the Project February offerings for February 04, 2010⁵:

• Clayton's Project 365 Photo of the Day
• Marg's pretty fused glass houses
• Alison's oh so soft bunnylace in 'bramble vine'
• Nancy's Silk Garden Scarf (her first installment in her rigid heddle scarfaweek)
• Kimberly's beautiful hand dyed shawl
• Liz's first stash busting scarfadayorweekormonth

Once again, if I've missed a link or a photo you've sent me, do let me know!


1. Avatar was just as pretty as I expected and the story line just as predictable. I did expect the acting to be a little better but I wasn't going for the dialogue or story or acting, so I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I enjoyed myself quite a bit and even sniveled at the appropriate bits towards the end, even though I knew from the moment the film started just how it would end. The 3D was definitely impressive and I was relieved that when I left the theater my eyes were merely tired and scratchy and not totally blurry & painful like they were after Coraline.

2. Just imagine what that other @rondawson might say!⁸

3. I'm nearly 100% certain that, as soon as I hit "Publish Post" and therefore permanently and publicly record this logic, it will immediately dawn on me why and how it is nonsensical. Please be gentle.

4. Man, am I all about the ---> arrows <--- tonight, or what?

5. Happy Birthday, Gramma Rosemary! And thank you thank you thank you for the good weaving/knitting/yarnaholic genes!

6b. Okay, so I'm pretty sure I've screwed up my footnote numbering somehow. C'est la vie!

8. If you've no idea what I'm on about re: rondawsons (and really, why would you?) and would like to get in on the joke (ha ha!), you could search on twitter for 'janetdawson' and 'rondawson'. All Will Be Revealed.

9. Ha! Who'm I kidding? Not even myself, that's who.