The M-awl

It's a Man Shawl... so a M-awl for short!

Remember this scarf??

I loved the stripes!

 Here is the pattern:

The stripes aren't as apparent on the big project as they were on the scarf.  It's more of a scattering of color, which is cool... but I definitely liked the stripes!  

Here's a bigger shot of the whole thing.  It is very pretty and super soft!!

I actually ran out of black and didn't want to buy more black just for the last 1.5 inches, so I improvised with navy.  You can see it on the right in this picture.  However, in real life, it's not as apparent.  It's just that I used my flash in this picture and it picked it up really well!  I guess I should have spread out the navy yarn throughout the whole warp, but it wasn't that important to me.  I mean, this isn't going to be leaving the house!

But I think it will make Brian very happy... and warm!

The entire warp was actually free because the black yarn was given to me.  

That's just awesome!!  I love free things and good deals!

 So far, this entire shawl has only cost me $1.90!

Oh yeah!

That's just beyond awesome!!!

Striped Zigzags

This scarf is going to my aunt in Massachusetts!

This is the same tie-up as the chargers scarf, but just a different threading.
This scarf is threaded 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 and treadled 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-7-6-5-4-3-2.

I love this yarn!!! 

I got it on sale at Hobby Lobby.  The blue is actually leftovers from the chargers scarf.

It looks more purple-y in this combo!

 

I also like the uneven stripes!

I hope she likes it, too!!  I know it will keep her warm in such a cold state!

5 are aready to go!

I finished the other 2 red and white hound's tooth scarves, bringing the total to 4!

So now all 5 scarves are done and ready to ship!

I'm glad that this order is done and on its way to Utah!  It's quite a load off my shoulders!

2 down! 2 more to go!

These really don't take long to set up or to weave!  And they are an awful lot of fun!  I love that my scarves are so popular!!!

Where's Waldo??

I have felt slightly overwhelmed by this recent order.  In fact, I received it a few weeks ago and it's not like me to put something like that off.  But with the craft show approaching quickly, I just felt a need to get some stock up before I could focus on these scarves.  I was most intimidated by the "Chargers" scarf, but needing to weave 4 of these red and white scarves was also intimidating on its own!  However, I finally found my focus and decided to just do it this weekend!

Here is the University of Utah's logo:

My friend wanted the reddest red and the whitest white I could find!

 In the store, "hot red" was definitely THE brightest red I could find!  It almost hurts my eyes to look at it!

I decided to weave 2 scarves at a time, so I only really need to do this twice.

Last time I made 2 scarves at one time, my method was a little questionable.  I made one yarn float all the way at the edge and it stretched out really bad.  It was only by luck that the scarves ended up so close in length to each other!  So this time I made one knot in the middle of the warp.

 It was made at exactly 2.5 yards.  Now I just need to weave until I find it in the warp!  Because the worsted weight yarn is so thick, it's pretty tough to squeeze this knot through the 8 dent reed.  So I do and don't really look forward to seeing it again soon!

 This was obviously a longer warp!  I'm getting pretty used to the short warps, but it will be nice to set up the loom twice instead of four times, even though it only takes about 15 minutes to set the loom up with these smaller scarves.

 Something about this warp just looks so familiar, whimsical, and reminds me of the 1990's! 

I can't seem to help it, but when I look at these red and white yarns together, all I can think of is, "Where's Waldo?!"  Remember that book?  It was an over-sized book filled with tiny, tiny people and you had to find the one guy that looked like this:

haha!  Sometimes Waldo was hidden really well!  I had a few of those books and loved them!!

So far, this weave is coming out PERFECT!!

I'll keep watching my crime TV while I weave on this one.  Something about the red just screams out, "Crime TV!  Crime TV!"

Maybe it's the red...

Chargers are done!

Now I need to whip up 4 hound's tooth scarves in the Univ. of Utah's colors of red and white!  He wants the reddest red and the whitest white I can get!

Chargers draft 10

I started weaving the chargers draft and realized that the back had some weirdness to it.  So I re-worked the draft a little bit and change the tie-up so it's reversible.

Final tie-up (draft 10)

 I have noticed that I still have floats of 7 threads, but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it AND still keep the original design.

So I'm going to just finish like this and hope that those floats don't catch on anything.

I'll warn them, and if they do, I'll design another one to replace it!

That's what experimenting is all about!

When I showed him a picture, this was his reply: WOW WOW WOW

I take it he likes it A LOT!!!

Chargers and Univ. of Utah

I had someone contact me about weaving a special "Chargers" scarf representing a football team.  Their logo looks like this:

I came up with a few ideas for my friend in order to put this symbol into a scarf.  Here are the ideas I had:

1

2

3

4

He liked these first 4, but then asked me to turn the lightening bolt on the side.  No problemo! Here were the other ideas I sent:

5

 6

7

My friend really REALLY like #6!  Then he wanted to make sure it would go vertical, so I designed this to make sure were were both on the same page!

 

Then I noticed that some of the floats were very long... and after much contemplation, I revised my plan and made a few modifications to correct these floats.

Here are my two modifications:

draft 8

draft 9

My friend said he liked draft #9 the best, even better than what we had before because to him, this has a 3D look to it!  Yay!!  Now I can get started working on it! Personally, I like the bottom one the best too, and now the he pointed out the 3D look, I like it even better!
 
I can't wait to get started!  I need to stock up on some powder blue yarn!

This person also wants 4 scarves in the "brightest red and the whitest white" to represent the University of Utah for him and all of his friends.

Let the beloved polyester weaving continue!

Candy Cane stripes

Candy canes on my loom!!!

 

They're cheerful, and just in time for the season!

It's pretty elf-life!

 

Candy cane stripes are so much fun to weave!!!  This is just a 4/4 twill, and it's just like the hound's tooth, except I have a solid white warp and I'm using solid red weft.

Wouldn't this look cute in red and green?

It puts me in the mood for yummy peppermints!