It’s that Time of Year

It’s that Time of Year

Congratulations to Jolanta, winner of the Third Birthday Giveaway #4!  Please  send me your snail mail address and I’ll put the batts in the mail to you.  I look forward to seeing how you use them. I hope you have fun!

Here in the Midwest USA, the weather has turned cold and the snow has started to fly.  With the holidays and New Year around the corner, my thoughts have turned to warmth and gifts.

I’ve wanted to experiment with cobweb felt so I made a cobweb scarf with one layer of  a merino/silk mix.  I didn’t intentionally make holes, but let the process dictate the outcome.

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Here are some closeups:

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It is very lightweight but has enough fiber to keep the neck warm.

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Using the same type of merino/silk mix,  I made two additional scarves.  But this time I didn’t want holes, so I used two layers of fiber and carefully inspected each before felting for weak spots filling in where necessary, then checked frequently during the process.

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Of course, with the process of rolling and fulling each ended up with some holes.  The brown more than the lilac.  I like the look of them, but disappointed in the outcome.

Last year I made my husband a scarf with the merino/silk mix, but used a prefelt between layers and it made it much heavier.  Perhaps, next time I will use an additional layer of merino  instead of prefelt for a thinner scarf.

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I’ve also been pod happy again and have made two more  as gifts.  I made batts using merino/silk, and merino for outside layers and Cheviot as an inner layer to give the bowl strength, but of course, it migrates through and had to be shaved.

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What projects have you been working on for the season?

 

 

22 thoughts on “It’s that Time of Year

  1. Beautiful scarves, Marilyn. Wonderful colour combination (grey and blue as I can see from my monitor)I think I prefer the one with holes. Some time ago I made two and just love the mixture of merino and silk. I even added extra silk on the top (took the whole strand and teased it apart. These scarves are light as feathers.
    I like you pods too. They will make wonderful gifts.

    1. Thanks Nada! I love the cobweb effect, too. It’s fun to see how it turns out.

  2. The scarves look great, Marilyn 🙂
    I’ve been blending some of my scarf Merino on the carder to make variegated scarves for presents.

    1. Thanks Zed! You’re ambitious. I think I’m done with scarves for a while. 🙂

  3. I suppose it’s the angle of the photo, but your layout looks terrifyingly long – like a runway!
    All the scarves are beautiful and would be a pleasure to wear.

    Using prefelt between the layers, as you did for your husband’s scarf, makes it ‘man scarf’. If you don’t want the same weight for a scarf for yourself, but also don’t want holes, then an extra layer of merino should help. However, three layers would make different shrinkage to two layers. Would it be possible to add the same amount of wool as if you were making a third layer, but split into two very fine layers?

    The pods are extremely pretty!

    1. Thanks Lyn! Great advice, you’re right the third layer would affect shrinkage. Two thin layers would be better. The scarf started out about 96″ (244 cm) long and shrank to 72″.

  4. Th scarves are so pretty – it is hard for me to get a scarf that is totally free of holes too – using cheese cloth which is still very light weight as the center layer helps me.

    1. Thanks Frances! I hadn’t thought of cheesecloth for a center of a scarf. I did use it in my handbag to give it stability to avoid stretch. I’ll have to try it.

  5. Marilyn, all the scarfs are very pretty…I believe the cobweb technique to be extremely difficult to create. The pods are wonderful too and will be super gifts.

    1. Thanks Judy! You’re right, this is my second attempt. The first time I made a table runner and really didn’t get shirnkage or the holey effect I wanted. I guess practice makes perfect. 🙂

  6. The scarves look great, especially the one you made for your husband with stripes and fringe.
    Very masculine! I enjoyed making cobweb scarves last winter and did not have issues with the holes, expecting them to be there. Guess it’s a matter of how many holes and how large they are. For this holiday season, I’ve been making arm-warmers for the women in my family…5 sets so far!

    1. Thanks Cathy! I expected the holes in the first but not the lilac and brown. It’s always an experiment. 🙂

  7. All your scarves look lovely Marilyn. Love the blue/grey mix. I like cobweb scarves, so light, but still nice and warm, the few small holes don’t worry me at all. We’re off to Switzerland later in the week so I’m making sure I have all my warm gear!

    The pods look good too, they’ll make nice gifts. I’ve just made a cat cave and was being a bit mean with my nice wools and inserted a layer of Nowegian in the middle – bad idea of course and I should know better, because it has migrated big time! Such a pity as I spent hours on it, fulling, fulling and fulling to get it really hard. Frugality has its price!

    1. Thanks Judith!
      Have fun in Switerland, that’s on my bucket list as well as a cat cave even though I don’t have a cat. I just like trying new things. I agree about coarse fibers they can make or break a project depending on what final look you’re going for.

  8. Great scarves and pods. That merino silk is always beautiful. I need to make some more. If you like the weight of your finished scarves use the same amount of wool but divide it in to 4 equal peices and use one piece for each layer. Laying out really thin and even takes a lot of practice. I have a really hard time doing thick now. I usually have to do to layers for each direction to use up all the wool when I do hats.

  9. Great scarves and pods Marilyn. It looks like you’ve gotten a lot of good advice for preventing holes next time. It is the layout that is the most important part. When I was trying to make a cobweb scarf it took me three tries before I was happy with one. I like the holes though 🙂

    1. Thanks Ruth! I’ll definitely have a lot of good guidance for my next attempt! 🙂

  10. So beautiful your scarves and the pods.I could given so many uses to them, like filling with dried fruits for the christmas table.I take already the opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.Sorry that where I live we have no snow, although is cold, the sun is shining and it should be around 16 degrees celsius.

    1. Thanks Irene! I wouldn’t be unhappy to live in a warmer climate without snow. We’re lucky to have children who live in warm places that we can visit. 🙂

      Pods are easy to make. You can find a free tutorial at http://rosiepink.typepad.co.uk
      Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family!

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