My Christmas present to myself this year was a 72" triangle loom from
Weaver's Cupboard. I bought it early in December and have been busy with it ever since. I find weaving on a triangle loom intriguing- you begin at the outer points of the triangle and weave towards the center. It looks like it will never come out right but it magically always does. I usually use 5-8 different yarns- these projects are great stash busters. The nature of the weaving automatically creates a plaid pattern and is great for showing off different yarn textures. I love using my handspun yarn, the thick and thin aspect of my still-novice handspun yarn is an advantage in this kind of project.
I have made three shawls so far. The first is a green, blue and purple mix of handspun and commercially spun yarn. One of the commerical yarns is a 1" wide ribbon type of yarn that has long since lost its yarn band. I searched through ravelry to find out what it is but I had no luck. I learned the hard way in this project that using a mohair yarn probably isn't a good the best idea in a weaving project. The yarn kept sticking to itself and shedding like crazy, thus weakening the yarn. I even had to bust out my shed stick and grumbled throughout the whole weaving process. But I am quite happy with the result and already gave the shawl away as a Christmas present.
The second shawl is a pink, purple and teal mix that I made for myself. I used up a pink and purple tweedy handspun yarn that I made long ago. I avoided using fuzzy yarns in this project and it went much smoother than the previous project. The weave was pretty loose, but I found out the first time I wore this shawl that it is still very warm.
The third shawl is mustard, navy, olive and taupe. I wanted to make a shawl for my mom, who can't wear wool, so I really had to dig through my stash for non-wool yarns. I started off with a cone of variegated chenille that I have been wanting to use. It has shades of navy, periwinkle, olive and mustard. I looked around and found solid coordinating yarns in various textures: brown and navy Lion Brand Homespun, shiny rayon boucle in olive, smooth taupe bamboo, and mustard cabled cotton. This shawl also has a very open weave but still is warm to wear. I added fringe on this shawl and I think the end result is very dramatic.
I still have one more shawl planned, it will be in neutral shades of brown, blue and grey. It will be for my friend who has offered her services as a photographer for my wedding in March. She is six feet tall, so this will probably end up being more like a scarf to her!
