Chenille on the loom

Yes, I'm back to the loom - which is where I love to be! Yesterday afternoon I put on a black chenille warp for 5 scarves. I almost exclusively use 1300/yd chenille from Silk City Fibers, it's by far the best quality chenille around. This is the first scarf on the warp - it's a clasped weft technique using a lime green chenille along with the black. The remaining 4 scarves will be all black, but not for long. After coming off the loom one will get a couched design (on the sewing machine) of either a coordinating chenille or a novelty knitting ribbon/yarn. The other 3 will mostly probably get a surface design technique called discharge. I'll silkscreen designs on using a discharge paste, after it dries I hit it with the iron (well, not actually hit), the heat & steam will pull the dye out of the chenille. Black generally, but not always, turns out a gold color after discharging. Burgundy & rust have come out a brilliant gold, purple sometimes a lighter blue. I always test on a small sample piece before discharging on the actual scarf because occasionally it has turned out less than attractive.

On another note I've pulled out a third skein of handspun to try the streaming leaves scarf with - didn't care for the one I tried last night, maybe this one I'll love. I'm not ripping out the 'very colorful' one yet though, will let that sit on the needles for a while before deciding what to do.