Lightweight Lace Scarf
Designed and woven by Gail Matthews
With only a week left before the weaving had to be done, I decided to enter my local weaving guild’s yearly challenge. Lace was the theme, and this scarf was my entry. I looked through my yarn stash and found this baby alpaca and silk laceweight yarn that seemed like a good choice. This scarf is soft and lightweight—and just right to wear on a cool summer evening.
Project Specs
Warp length: 84” long (includes 18” loom waste)
Number of ends: 144
Width in reed: 12”
EPI: 12
PPI: 12
What You'll Need
-
Knitpicks Shimmer (70% baby alpaca and 30% silk), 440 yards/skein, 2 skeins of Eucalyptus
- Flip rigid heddle loom with at least 12" weaving width
- 12-dent reed
- one stick shuttle
- two 16” pick-up sticks
- extra apron rod or lease stick, 16” or longer
-
string for making heddles
-
masking tape
Materials
Equipment
Directions
Warping: Warp the loom according to Project Specs above.
Weaving: Weave a header with scrap yarn, making sure to leave about 6” of warp for fringe. Leave a tail of weft about 4 times the width of the warp. Start with the down shed and weave 12 picks of plain weave. Hemstitch the end of the scarf— I hemstitched bundles of four warp ends.
With the heddle in the down position, pick up pattern A following the pattern instructions below. Pattern stick A will remain in place throughout the weaving. You will need to pick up pattern B each time it is needed. Alternately, you can save pattern B on a heddle bar using string heddles.
Pick-up Pattern ASkip 6, (pick up 3, skip 3) 10 times, pick up 3, skip 6 at the end
Pick-up Pattern BSkip 9, (pick up 3, skip 3) 9 times, pick up 3, skip 9 at the end
Weaving Sequence for Lace
- Down
- Up & pattern stick A
Repeat steps 1 and 2 four times.
- Down
- Up
- Down
Up & pattern stick B
Repeat steps 6 and 7 four times.
- Down
- Up
Repeat the above pattern for the length of the scarf. End with 12 picks of plain weave. Hemstitch the end of the scarf and remove it from the loom.
Finishing
- Make a twisted fringe on both ends, using a total of 8 warp ends for each fringe (4 for each group).
- Wash by hand in lukewarm water, roll in a towel to press out the water and lay flat to dry.