Finished Object: Bulky Ruana

When I was a new knitter my first big yarn purchase from a proper yarn store was 6 skeins of Brown Sheep Burly Spun for a bulky knitted jacket. The yarn store owner ordered the yarn for me and when it came in I paid a shocking (to me) amount of money for it. That’s where the problems started. I swatched (see, I can learn!) with several different needles, but couldn’t get gauge. So the yarn languished in my stash. Looking back I wonder why I thought I would need a bulky wool jacket in the warm climate of the Southeastern US. Clearly I didn’t think it all the way through.

Last November I bought a 15″ Cricket loom. I’ve been on a little bit of a weaving jag since then, and I am having so much fun learning what I can (and can’t) do with this piece of equipment. I don’t have a sewing machine or a serger, and I’ve read that handwoven fabric is not as stable as commercial fabric, so I’m reluctant to cut into my fabric, but I still want to make wearable garments with it. So I set out to determine what kinds of garments can be made with squares and rectangles. Number 1 on the list is a vest. The vest can be long or short, but since it’s made of uncut rectangles it will end up blocky.

Recently I’ve been trying to use my stash instead of always buying new yarn . I mean, that’s what stash is for, right? (Note that I have not stopped buying new yarn, I’m just trying to also use some of the yarn I already have) I unearthed my Burly Spun and had a thought: if I used a fingering weight yarn in the warp (vertical) and sett it pretty wide, then I could use this Super Bulky in the weft (horizontal) and end up with a fabric that would (hopefully) not give me heat stroke. I did some measuring and some math, and found 2 fingering weight yarns (red and white) in my stash that coordinated well with my main yarn, then I warped up my loom and started weaving. I’m pleased to say that everything I used in this garment came from stash.

How I constructed the garment:

• A Ruana is a fancy name for a long vest. I took my measurements and wove 2 back pieces and 2 front pieces. The red warp yarn blended in extremely well with my weft yarn, so the woven fabric almost looks like brick.
• I used mattress stitch to sew the side seams, leaving slits for the arm holes and vents below the waist.
• I sewed lace along the outside top edges, turned it to the inside for a clean seam line, then sewed the shoulder seams at a similar angle to the slope of my shoulders.
• Using my red warp yarn I picked up stitches along the fronts and neck and knit a garter stitch collar using short rows to shape the bottom edges. I also picked up stitches along the side vents and armholes and knit a 3-row garter stitch edging to stabilize and clean up the edges. Conveniently my knitted stitch gauge was the same as my woven row gauge.

What I learned from this weave:

• If you use a fine yarn in the warp and a big yarn in the weft your fabric turns out super interesting and textured. I must do this more!
• Weaving with super bulky yarn goes incredibly fast! Talk about instant gratification!
• The finishing on a sewing project can take as long as weaving the fabric and doing the basic construction (I hate the finishing work).
• Projects only get done if you work on them. I started this project in November, and after the first panel was completed inexplicably stopped until mid-June. Maybe I didn’t want to deal with warping my loom?
• When weaving multiple panels of the same width, weave them all on the same warp if possible. This eliminates time spent warping and helps with loom waste.