Welcome back! It has been so much fun to see your progress in my Facebook group over the weekend! I am always amazed and inspired by the creative talent in the crochet community, and your scrappy scarves are no exception.
This week our focus will be on weaving. It can be a bit time-consuming, but I promise it’s a very simple process. This is the part where we really get into creating the art yarn look, so the more variegated and varied your weaving is, the more “authentic” to this style it will be. Not sure what I mean by the “art yarn” look? Check out this Pinterest link, and this video showing a real art yarn or yarn scrap scarf being woven.
Let’s get started!
Materials Needed:
50-75 yards of #5 chunky yarn (this time around I’m using Lion Brand Homespun in “Vineyard”)
Small amounts of accent yarn like Foxy Fur, yarn with a metallic stripe, or other unusual novelty yarn. The more unique the better! I’m using a purple mohair, a chunky green yarn, and Caron Simply Soft Party in “Violet Sparkle”. This is some older yarn and is a solid color. Their current “Violet Sparkle” is variegated, but “Grape Sparkle” may be a fairly close substitute if you want to attempt a similar color scheme.
Large-eyed yarn needle for weaving. It’s much more fun to thread chunky yarn through this than it would be a smaller needle (and I want things to be fun).
Art n’ Soul CAL Part 2:
If you ever made pot-holders out of stretchy nylon loops as a kid, you already know how to weave! Over, under, over, under, using the dc stitches as your warp (see image below). Switch to under, over, under, over on the next row.
I used 4, strands of yarn for each dc row, and after doing that, I wove the other kinds of novelty yarn (fur, other chunky yarn, and interesting worsted weight yarn) through the spaces at the top of the rows (noted with arrows in the picture below). If you made your dc stitches loose enough, these spaces should be very visible. Your yarn pieces can by 96 or 108″ long, or you can play around with the length until you get something you like. My mesh did shrink up a little bit during the weaving process, so if yours does too it’s ok. This isn’t an exact science–it’s art! Just try to stretch the mesh out as you weave each row to help keep it more even.
Note: If you’re using Lion Brand Homespun or something similar, putting a knot in each end of your strand of yarn will help keep it from fraying when you weave it.
This close-up is from my original Art n Soul Scrappy Scarf.
Remember, it will look amazing even if it’s not perfect–especially if it’s not perfect.
If you’re interested, here is another, more detailed video tutorial showing how a real art yarn piece is woven. It looks messy, because it is, but don’t the textures and colors it look beautiful at the end?
Ok, back to work!
This image is from my current scarf. Here you can see I’m weaving a group of 3 different yarns through the holes between the rows
Once you’re done with the weaving, grab a hot cup of tea, give yourself a pat on the back, and get ready for week 3 when we’ll begin the surface slip stitching!
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On to Part 3: Surface Slip-Stitched Swirls
Back to Part 1: Making your dc “mesh”
Here’s mine so far…
Disclaimer:
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