Tag: made from stash

Happy Fall, Y’all!

Yesterday was the first day of fall and I got an itch to make something to mark the occasion. I raided my stash and came up with about half a yard of cotton flannel and a few yards of lace. I thought about making a quilted scarf, but decided on a shawl since it would be faster and easier to make and because I love wearing shawls. Plus, a shawl can do double duty as a scarf.

I started by cutting the flannel into the largest square I could manage, then cut that diagonally down the center to make two triangles. I chose to piece one edge rather than cut the entire shawl smaller. After the piecing was done I aligned two straight-grain edges and seamed them together by machine. Then I ironed the seam and felled the seam allowance down by hand with a running stitch. This was the entirety of the construction of the shawl. Next up was finishing and decoration.

The top of the shawl is on the straight grain, so I finished this edge with a machine overcast stitch. Then I added lace to the edges. I used a lace from my stash that had mysteriously been cut into multiple pieces. I joined the lace as inconspicuously as possible to make one long piece, then zig-zagged it to the very edge of my shawl. I stretched the shawl edges slightly as I applied the lace – partly to account for the lace shrinking in the wash and partly because I thought this would make the shawl lay more nicely. Because I stretched the fabric edges I ran out of lace about a foot from the end, so I substituted a similar lace from my stash.

This was a very fun and quick project, and I am excited to wear it more this Fall and Winter. It’s not perfect – the stripe colours don’t align perfectly, and I had to use two kinds of lace, but the overall effect is quite nice, and it was made entirely from stash leftovers. I’ve never had a woven/sewn triangle shawl before. I think the combination of the plaid and the lace is striking and very cute, and it’s very soft and warm.

What is your favourite way to celebrate Fall?

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.