Weaving with Speckled Yarn

Western Sky Knits Collaboration

We’ve all been there; standing at a fiber show and staring at a wall of hand-dyed skeins of luxury yarn. They call to you, but your pocketbook screams in terror hoping that you don’t pull down enough for a sweater, and sighs a relief when you only pull down two skeins. A stunning speckled skein (so hot right now) and a semi-solid contrast skein.

It’s now been a few months, the yarn has languished in your stash waiting for the perfect project, but you don’t know what to do with it. The knitting patterns don’t sing to you, and crochet uses too much yarn, so what do you do?

Weave with it!

This scenario happened to me at Yarn Fest this year. I was in the Western Sky Knits booth and I couldn’t help myself when the Nightfall colorway leaped into my hands, and then I HAD to get a second contrasting skein.

A few months have gone by, and I couldn’t sit there and stare at my yarn any longer, I needed to do something with it, so I decided to swatch up some woven samples on my Zoom Loom, curious as to what would happen when I wove up the speckled yarn.

 

I fell in love with how the colors interacted with each other, and how they interacted with themselves. Wanting to have each of the samples represented in the finished piece, I decided to divide my warp in half with each color, and then weave blocks of color.

 

 

What you need:

2 skeins of yarn, one speckled, one solid or semi-solid.

I used Western Sky Knits Magnolia Sock

180 yards of Nightfall

190 yards of Peppered

10″ Cricket Loom

10-Dent Reed

Optional: Zoom Loom

Warping:

Direct warping method

Warp length:

92″ (234 cm)

Warp width:

8″ in 10-dent reed. 40 ends of Peppered, 40 ends of Nightfall.

Hemstitch at the beginning and the end.

Weave 40 pick sections of each color, alternating as you weave. End with the same color as you started with.

Remove the fabric from the loom and fringe twist the ends. I took 4 sections of 2 threads and twisted them together, which creates a robust, round fringe.

Optional: Weave two squares on the Zoom Loom with the speckled yarn and sew them onto the scarf approximately 14″ on either side of the center point. Tack down the edges leaving the ends open running weft-wise.

This project is iconic of how I like to design my woven projects. If you want to learn more about designing, and weaving with stash yarn, I will be teaching a course called Design on the Fly this October, at the Sea Ranch Resort in the Outer Banks of North Carolina hosted by Island Fiberworks. If you’d like more information, we have set up a Facebook group with more details for people who are interested. Space is limited, so act soon if you’d like to join me this Fall!

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Western Sky Knits started as a small online shop in 2007 and has grown into a hand-dyed yarn company. Based out of a studio on a ranch in Montana, each skein is hand dyed using various techniques such as kettle dyeing and hand painting. With many bases to choose from and stunning unique colors, there is surely a skein for you!