Gene Black an Alabama Artist and Quilter: Weaving Whoops

There are things that can go wrong when you weave. Aside from the obvious mistakes that you can make during weaving, there are other things that can happen. This scarf that I was making shows some serious problems that can happen.

This scarf is a combination of alpaca, wool and silk. One of the two alpaca yarns might have been okay on its own, but when combined with the others was a serious problem. You see it is stretchy. As I bought it mail order, I had no way of knowing that.

As you can see, it caused the edges of the weft to draw in. This made the edge a bit wavy and my selvedges are not straight. For this, it does not make me happy.

I had also used some in the warp. It caused the ends to draw in.

See the dip at the lighter yarn. I love the silk blend (golden tan) right next to it though.

Overall, it also caused the scarf to shrink a lot. This scarf should be a little more than 48 inches. It came out to just over 39 inches. Totally not acceptable. I expected some shrinkage when I wet finished it, but that is absurd.
The scarf is still very attractive, but it will not go to my client. I will start again and make another one when the extra yarn I ordered comes in.

It is still a nice looking scarf and I will probably give it to one of my great nieces since due to shrinkage it is child-size.

My blog is http://blog.geneblack.com

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible unless otherwise stated.

9 comments:

kathyinozarks said...: oh wow thanks for sharing-I am weaving a combination of wool, silk, mohair on a cotton warp-so far so good-I have always been told that is so important to sample first-but I have never done that-I always just jump right in; 8:14 AM
kathyinozarks said...: ps-I do love the color combinations; 8:15 AM
Vicki W said...: Hate it when that happens! But TV episode colors are beautiful.; 8:27 AM
Vicki W said...: Ugh, auto-correct. "But the colors......"; 8:28 AM
Marjorie said...: We learn a lot from fabric, but even more from yarn I think. I love knitting, but some of the yarns that feel the best to my fingers are the very ones that behave badly in the end. There are just so many options with yarns.; 8:28 AM
Barb said...: You are right, it still looks good...actually real good....but like Marjorie said....there is a lot to learn; 5:56 PM
Jeanna said...: You are learning a lot Gene. I'm sorry that this one didn't turn out as expected but at least someone will still get some use out of it as it is still very nice.

I am loving my scarf and shared a picture of it in tonight's blog post.

Thanks again for my "WAR EAGLE" scarf!; 9:11 PM
suemac said...: The colors are pretty. I guess sometimes things just happen. I know that happens to my quilting sometimes.; 10:22 PM
Beth said...: Lovely color combinations! So sorry about the yarn issues. Sometimes even if you see it in person, you don't know if it will behave. Luckily you have a smaller person who will love it.; 11:57 PM