WAL Throw

A while back I ordered a challenge pack of yarn from Patternworks for their Warm Up America contest.

Contestants were to design an afghan using both knitting and crochet and the yarns in the challenge pack. The colors in my pack - maroon, gold, beige and orange plus a coordinating multicolor - haven't inspired any design ideas so I've decided to use the yarn to make a throw with woven squares from the weave-a-long edged with a crochet border.

The yarn is Plymouth Encore Worsted. I'm planning to make four squares of each woven pattern in the four solid colors with the edging in the multi-color. Hmm. I wonder how many squares will be included in the WAL?

Square Deal Weave-a-Long #1: Windowpane Lace.


Here are several of the first squares I made of WAL pattern #1.

I see I'm going to have to work on my scanning technique because these scans do not show much of the detail of the weavings. I used three different yarns from my stash: a textured wool (top square), a mohair/wool blend (middle square) and a smooth wool (bottom square). More later...

My most prized (weaving) tool.

Years ago my sister and I attended a weaving conference in northern California.

I had signed up for a handspinning workshop with Patsy Zawistowski and my sister (who is an accomplished beader) chose one with Helen Baines on making needlewoven neckpieces.

Unfortunately about one day into the conference we both became deathly ill and spent most of our time together in our motel room too sick to even think about going to the workshops we had so looked forward to attending.

The first day - before we got sick - my sister bought two miniature tapestry forks for needleweaving and gave me one of them. It is not only beautiful but is ideal as a beater for weavette and other small loom weaving. The one in the picture is actually not mine because mine mysteriously disappeared some years later and my sister kindly gave me hers.

It is a wonderful tool and I would dearly like to find another as a spare in case this one turns up missing. If anyone out there knows where I can buy one, please let me know. Thanks!