Blankets from Odds and Ends

I started this warp just after Christmas. I didn’t think to take photos of the pile when I dumped three or four big plastic tubs of yarn out onto the floor. This was odds and ends of natural colored wool—mostly Jacob and some of it handspun. Some was in skeins, some on cones, and some in balls of various sizes. Truly a mixture. I also didn’t take photos of winding the 11-1/2 yard warp.

I did think to take a photo while I was putting this warp on the loom. I wound the warp in three bouts because it was 60” wide. The three bouts are still tied where they are hanging near the floor in the photo.

As I took each bout off the warping frame I realized that some of the yarns “were not like the others” to use a phrase that always reminds me of the kids watching Sesame Street. Those loose dark yarns are not elastic like all the other yarns in this warp. Oh well. I just stretched out the stretchy yarns to pull them taut as I wound onto the beam and it all went on together. There are also some squiggly yarns in this warp—those were from a couple of frogged (what you do when you take apart knitting) scarves.

It looks a lot better when on the loom. Notice the yarns hanging down. As I ran out of one yarn I just tied in another leaving enough yarn to deal with the join when I came to it. With an 11+ yard warp that would have been a lot of short pieces to leave behind if I kept my knots just at the end pegs.

This is one of the four blankets I wove on this warp.

I’m pretty sure that this new switch helped keep this warp trouble-free. (My mom had it in her 1985 Honda and that car lasted a long time.)

This is a blanket before any finishing. Notice the squiggly yarns. There are also some singles yarns here.

This is why I usually do my work out in my shop which is a cat-free zone. It has been too cold and I brought everything to the house while I was working on fringe.

These are the four finished blankets. They are all woven using the same weave structure—an 8-shaft twill.

This one was woven with a light tan mohair-wool blend from the Capay Valley.

One uses gray Jacob britch wool yarn. That is a bit coarser than the other wool, but it’s great in this blanket.

The other two are woven with white Timm Ranch yarn. They are all thick and squishy with great drape. I think I have a buyer for one or two and after she looks at them I’ll be selling the others.