Weaving some magic

We all love fibers.  I mean, that's really why we knit, isn't it?  For some it's the amazing colors.  For others it's the texture.  For me, it's both.  I love it all.  Truth is, though, some of the fibers we love we just don't love for knitting.  Often there's a problem with the size and scale.  Paula is really drawn Berroco's Sundae in that Black Watch plaid colorway.  But a size 15 needle?  Paula's happiest working on a size 3 or 4, so that just wasn't happening.   Maybe you love the look of sock yarn, but the thought of size 1 or 2 needles makes you feel queasy.  I have a whole pile of beautiful ice pink yarn whose silkiness and sheen seduced me into bringing at home.  But when I tried to knit this gorgeous stuff, I found that it was slippery, inelastic and generally so miserable to knit that it's been languishing in a bag in my closet for going on three years. 

So when Lynne brought her brand new loom into the La Plata shop, I was mesmerized.

Wearing her first weaving project, she spun a tale about how weaving allowed you to turn beautiful fibers into a very different kind of fabric than knitting allowed.  She spoke on how those beautiful but inelastic fibers make a perfect warp and lend strength, stability, and beauty to woven fabric.  At last, a way to showcase those qualities of my ice pink yarn that wouldn't make oneo of us destroy the other in the process. 

Over the next few weeks, Lynne continued to demonstrate and explain in her gentle and seductive voice how weaving fits perfectly into a knitters life. She and Martha and Paula (yes, she'd already turned my La Plata team to the Dark Side) began churning out gorgeous scarves and wraps with the magical loom.  Here is Paula's first weaving WIP.  She warped with Inca Gold and wove with Ellyn Cooper Gemini.  It's just beautiful, and a very different fabric from knitting.  Woven fabric is the same on both sides, always lies flat, and is typically much finer that it a knitted fabric of the same fibers would be.
 
"Okay," I said, already picturing a spectacular ice pink wrap in my head, my hands on the phone, "Please send me 20 looms...and hurry..."Late last week our 20 looms arrived.  We've already filled this Sunday's class in La Plata, and many of the remaining looms have been sold to staff, but there are still 5 or 6 looms available for the Leonardtown weaving class which meets Sunday, April 25th from 1-4 p.m.  Call the Leonardtown shop for more information or to register for the class.