I was perusing Yarn Barn of Kansas' website recently and saw this kit they call "Soft Merino Petals," a huck lace scarf in a very soft 2/30 laceweight wool by Trendsetter Yarns. It's 100% extra fine merino. I just had to order it, partly because I love huck lace and partly because I figured if I picked a light blue, it would be gorgeous on my daughter-in-law, so I ordered it.
This was the first time I've ever woven with a hand-knitting yarn, especially one as soft as this very lightweight wool. Turns out it was nearly impossible to have clean edges, even when I tried holding them, and because the wool was so soft and breakable - yes, two warp threads actually broke, something that almost never happens to me - I could not use the temple I would have chosen for this item, one made by Jo Dendel of Denwar in Costa Mesa, CA, which holds the fabric from the sides but has these big claw-type hooks on them. Lo and behold, I was visiting a weaver in Temecula, CA, with a friend who wanted to purchase a Loomcraft loom the woman had for sale, and I noticed how she was handling something she had on her AVL, so I asked her about it. She'd jerry-rigged some tarp clips to lines, then attached fishing weights off the sides of the loom. Interesting idea, and it sparked a thought in my mind. What if I took off the ends Jo had put on his temple and attached tarp clips, which would be very gentle on my fabric, so ran off to the camping section at our local Walmart and purchased a pack, came home and attached them to Jo's temple. Wow, what a difference. I still had to be very careful to not get wavy edges, but it was easier now.
The other thing about this warp was that I had to beat it oh-so-gently. It was threaded, per the kit, at 24 epi, so for a balanced weave, I had to beat it at about 24 ppi, which meant, as it turned out, that I had to beat completely differently than I usually do. I had to throw the pick, close the shed, beat very lightly, change treadles, open the shed and throw the next pick. Slow going compared to my usual method of weaving. Note how huck lace looks completely different on the loom per the photo below. The lace doesn't open up until you take it off the loom, where the threads can relax and open up.
I did not do this scarf completely per the instructions. For instance, I prefer to hemstitch my weavings unless they are going to be hemmed, and I planned on twisting the fringes, so I had to be careful that I had an even number of groups in my hemstitching. Once the scarf was completed, I cut it off and twisted the fringes in groups of six on six warp threads, then washed the scarf in Eucolan to protect it from critters, wrapped it in a towel for a bit and put it in the dryer for two minutes. The instructions say three minutes and call for nontwisted fringe and no hemstitching. Three minutes would have felted it way too much. Two minutes for my scarf was just about right. It ended up being 9-1/4 inches wide and just about 60 inches long plus fringe, so it shrunk more than I expected even with two minutes in the dryer on extra low heat. Then I hung it to dry and ironed it this morning.
Pretty scarf, and even if the edges are not absolutely perfect, I still love the end result.
