by Ashley Martineau
This idea was centered around a yarn that Laura Spinner had spun from Wensleydale Locks from Melissa Kness.
You can read more about Melissa's farm here and shop for this yarn in Laura's ETSY shop - or spin your own from a kit from Melissa's ETSY shop.
I let Melissa choose the colors of this yarn and told her all I wanted was some fun tailspun to use as an accept warp in a scarf. I ended up using this yarn in almost every scarf in my Spring 2017 series for THISyarn because it was so joyful and I loved working with it.
My idea for this scarf was to weave this yarn with pure white yarn - but when I sat down to weave I didn't have enough white yarn. So I used a blend of white & grey & navy blue with some copper (all psudo-neutrals to my eyes) and started weaving. The end result is a more muted idea of my original inspiration - but just as beautiful.
In order to accomplish this look I used my Ashford Sampleit Rigid Heddle loom with a 2.5 dent reed. I used 4 strands of the accent yarn (slightly off-centere) and grey handspun warp yarns in a similar weight thru the rest of the reed. Then I wove the navy / white handspun yarn from my stash until I was at the end of the warp. The last step was to go thru the scarf and fine-tune the locks by gently pulling them out of the weft and letting them hang free.
I think this scarf came out simply lovely - and it's a great use of one special accent yarn in your stash over an entire project. Accent stripes would be lovely on woven blankets, cowls, pillows, and hats.