Benjamin's Outlandish Tartan Scarf
By Benjamin Krudwig
Recently I had the pleasure of working with the Lhasa Wilderness yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch in a few of their new colors from their Outlandish colorway series which was inspired by Outlander, a book and recent TV series based in the Scottish Highlands.
When I was thinking of projects for this yarn I immediately knew that I had to weave a tartan plaid with it. (My Scottish ancestry is generations back and not well recorded, so I decided it was best to not weave a traditional tartan that I didn't have claim to.)
To create my plaid, I arranged my warp threads to make sure I used the same number of each color in the pattern. Not only did this give me peace of mind that I would use the same amount of each color of yarn, it gave me a visually balanced scheme. I wasn't worried about anything but the looks of the finished tartan. Using a weaving program allowed me to move colors around in the design without committing to a final setup.
What You'll Need
-
Lhasa Wilderness from Bijou Basin Ranch, 130 yards each in the following colors: 31 - Laoghaire (pronounced Lira, a yellow though it looks orange in the photo); 43 - Watercress (bright green); 44 - Lallybroch (dark green); 52 - Skye (blue)
-
4-shaft loom or rigid heddle loom with at least 7” weaving width
-
four stick shuttles or a boat shuttle and four bobbins
Materials
Equipment
Directions
Warping
I set up the 4-shaft loom as a straight draw, using 4 shafts just to distribute my heddles evenly. This also allowed me to have the option of doing a twill structure if I wanted to. For rigid heddle looms, use the indirect method with warp chains.
Repeat this color order twice. Note that it’s asymmetrical.
Helpful hint: When I use my Baby Wolf, I normally use my lease sticks to keep my warp cross because I generally have a pretty wide warp. For this project I had a much skinnier warp than normal, and I felt that my lease sticks would be too large. I had an "aha" moment when I looked over and saw my Variable Dent Reed on my shelf. I took out the individual dents, and slid the frame around the cross. I re-screwed the frame together and then lashed it onto my loom.
Weaving
Weave about 2.5 yards following the same color sequence as in the warp.
Finishing
Using four groups of two threads, make four stranded flat braids all the way across your warp.
I found that my selvedges weren't up to snuff, so I chose the dark green (Lallybroch) and single crocheted a border around the edge. I also found that this added a more "masculine" edge to the scarf, making it feel more substantial.
