The Daily Purl

Gear linen from habu as warp and weft. Incredibly interesting texture, but a challenging material during the warping process. It’s structural when woven in plain weave, but as I experimented and added some tsumugi silk (far right) it turned into an amazing fabric. I need to let the experience sit with me for a while and contemplate the design and use for another project – this material will be on the loom in the future. This sample piece features the hand-controlled weave chaining – it actually looks better when worked in thicker yarn (see here where I worked the chain in handspun alpaca – the chain sits on the surface) but I think the thin strand of silk contrasts nicely with the gear-like texture of the linen yarn.

handwoven scarf 7 inches by 58 inches

And linen yarn from linnet. This yarn was really easy to use as warp material and I was surprised when I gathered it in my hands during the warping process. It felt smooth, almost silky. I used 1/1 leno weave, peppering the length of the plain weave scarf with little squares of this open work technique. The combination of plain weave and linen yarn naturally creates a somewhat stiff fabric, but it’s offset here by the leno weave. Handwoven in colours ecru and acorn flax, it makes for an incredibly airy, light scarf.