Fractal scarf

I’ve woven something amazing, and I can hardly believe I really did it: a scarf made from my own hand spun fractal yarn!

The yarn

So fractal: what’s that? It’s a way to mix colours in a 2-ply yarn so that one ply has fast colour repeats, and the other has slow.

The resulting yarn sometimes shows a solid block of one colour (when the repeats match up) and more often shows a barber pole mix of colours.

But hey, I’m skipping rather ahead here! How does it work?

First, I separated the dyed top into two pieces, lengthwise. These two rovings are still fairly thick, and have the same sequence of colour repeats as the original.

If I were to spin each of these into singles, then ply them together, I’d get a solid-colour yarn that changes colour periodically.

Instead, I set one of the rovings aside, and split the other one in two pieces again to make two thinner rovings. Each of these I split in two, one final time.

When you spin the thick roving onto a bobbin, you get a singles yarn with long colour repeats.

When you spin each thin roving, you get short colour repeats. I spun these sequentially onto a second bobbin, always starting with the same blue end each time. This bobbin has four times as many colour repeats as the first bobbin.

When you ply the two singles yarns together, the short and long colour repeats overlap in interesting (and delightful) ways.

Having set the yarn (by soaking it and then snapping it a few times whilst damp), I was then faced with the puzzle of how to weave with it.

Could it be warp?

I performed two tests on my yarn:

• Strength: I took 15 cm of yarn between two hands and pulled firmly to see if it would break under tension. My yarn didn’t come apart at all, which was a success. If the yarn breaks with a “snap” then this is also a success. If the yarn breaks by gently separating the fibres or sliding apart, this would be a definite no for use as warp.
• Abrasion: I scraped my fingernail repeatedly along the yarn, whilst holding it under mild tension. This was also a success because I didn’t see any pilling or fibres fluffing out of the yarn, and the yarn wasn’t damaged.

With both tests successful, I could use my yarn as warp: yay!

Preparing to weave

The most immediate concern when planning a weaving project is to decide how many ends per inch (epi) to use. This is dependant on both the warp yarn (my fractal), the chosen weft (yet to be determined), and the desired weave structure (plain weave).

I used a simple yarn gauge to make a best guess.

I then counted the number of warp yarns inside the groove: eight, so my first sample would be at 8 epi.

The next step in planning a project is to decide how wide to make the piece, and therefore how many ends will be required.

At this point, a whole bunch of arithmetic comes into play, as well as some guesswork. I actually have an insanely complicated spreadsheet to help me with this. It takes into account:

• Yarn shrinkage for weft and warp (hand woven items always shrink when they are first washed).
• Estimated draw-in and take-up (extra width and length is needed for different weave structures).
• How much loom loss I have (the same every time I weave because warp needs to pass through the heddles at the back and is used to tie on at the front).
• Whether I want fringes or woven hems (I used the loom loss to make fringes).
• How many metres (or inches) or yarn I can get from a single cone (or skein) of yarn (so I don’t run out)!

Long story short, for my warp I planned on 3.6 metres of length, using 104 ends.

In the end I was only able to get 100 warp ends from my fractal yarn (not bad from my guesstimations, huh?). I had a small amount from one bobbin left over at the end (maybe 4 metres?) and a small amount from the first bobbin that had a knot at the start. I will keep this yarn in case I need to repair the scarf down the track.

Weaving the scarf

My weaving plan included enough warp to make a sample or two before weaving the bulk as a scarf. I figured there was a strong chance I’d need to adjust the epi to get the right feel to the cloth after washing the sample.

I was nervous about adding too much tension to the warp, as I’ve never woven with hand spun in the warp and I wasn’t sure my if my yarn would fail, despite my testing for suitability.

I washed the sample, and spent three minutes fulling the cloth (agitating with soap and hot water).

The yarn shrunk, bloomed, and relaxed into the space I had left on the loom. I think the feel of the sample at 8 epi was just right.

Nailed it!

I liked the look and feel of the dark brown weft the best, so I wove off the remainder of the warp (99 inches!) as a scarf.

I twisted the fringes, wet finished for two and a half minutes (I wanted a little less shrinkage than the sample), and once it was dry, gave it a press.

And here’s the finished scarf!

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Now that it’s complete, I’m finding it hard to believe that I made it. It seems too good to be true!

The finished scarf is 9 ¼ inches wide, 90 inches long, and has 10 threads per inch in both warp and weft (balanced). The scarf has a luscious drape; it’s soft and squishy in the hand, and is light but very warm.

I am beyond delighted with my hand spun, hand woven scarf!