Colours to Make My Heart Swoon

I decided to switch things up a bit this week and showcase for one of the many woven scarves I've made lately (can you hear the sarcasm?).  As I work to finish many long term knitting projects I have found that my one woven scarf a week cleverly tricks me into thinking that I'm still making progress on my crafts, though it's quickly turning my blog into a woven scarf blog exclusively.  New things are working their way down the pipes, I'm just a faster weaver than anything else.

Despite how much I've been weaving recently, I continue to learn something new with each one.  This time it was something that seemed so glaringly obvious that I'm amazed I didn't think about it before.  

What is it that I learned?  It's far easier to do the fringe/hem stitching after doing a couple of rows when starting, than it is to do the hem after the weaving is finished.  I have been awkwardly holding the beginning of the weavings tight ALL THIS TIME, just because I didn't consider doing it after weaving several rows in.

For this hem, I did hem stitch (fittingly enough).  I stuck in the darning needle so that it was in by two rows for the warp and the weft. 

I then pulled it through, and using the tail by the base of where the yarn just came out, I created a c shape, went under the same two strands of the warp (but on the outer edge), and then made sure the loop created would be under my needle when pulled tight.  

It creates a nice and tight stitch when done properly, and feels the most secure of all of the tying of methods I've tried.

But all of these intelligent solutions and more efficient rhythms couldn't go unpunished.  As I got towards the last stretch of this scarf I found that the gremlins had knotted my warp.  

I spent the next 2 hours navigating the knot, eventually cutting the very ends of where the warp was effected, and had to knot it unceremoniously to make things works.  Then after such a hassle I had to fix the tension on my warp since it was pathetically limp in some spots, and outrageously tight in others.  

This scarf was not finished in the usual week.

Yet, all in good time it was finished.  It may have been an arduous test of my patience, but this bulky yarn wrapped me in sweet and tender love as the autumn chills crept in overnight and claimed my busy little city.

Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned.