It seems like a million years ago I started collecting cashmere sweaters to un-knit and use the yarn as weft to make a blanket. After I had collected 4 or 5 sweaters and took them apart, I put the skeins of yarn in my cedar chest and continued on my weaving journey. A couple years ago I was telling a friend about this great idea to make a blanket out of recycled cashmere, and she agreed and commissioned me to weave a blanket 90" x 100" that had the unknitted cashmere as the weft. These were the only parameters.Slowly I began testing various warps to combine with the cashmere and finally settled on Bambu 12 doubled and sett at 24 epi. I ikat dyed a bunch of the bamboo and wove a 20" panel to see.
I wish I had time right now to re-cap or at least to give you the link to my older posts that chronicle the project panel by panel, but the airport shuttle will be here in less than 6 hours and I haven't finished packing and still have a couple more feet to weave before I can cut the piece off the loom (and I really want to take it with me).
I will attempt to fix the links whenever I get near a computer in the next couple of weeks. But the picture above shows some progress. I joined two of the panels together. I love the way it looks so much I decided to wear it as a shawl on my trip. It looks and feels quite divine. I am taking the other 3 completed panels with me and will join them all together in my spare time.
The delivery date of the completed blanket is August, and I have 4 more panels to weave. It is time to get busy.
I am sure you have noticed the narrow horizontal panel is longer than the ikat panel. Well, I fixed that right after I saw the picture (grin)
5 comments:
Just breathtaking! A true labor of love. Don't forget to share your method of joining the panels.
you and the blanket errr... shawl look beautiful. Can't wait to see it in all its final glory.
Have a great time on your trip(s).
It's lovely! And what a great idea to collect old sweaters for the yarn. Clever!
I have found that adding internal links ("related posts") substantially increases the number of pages viewed in a day.
It's March 27........I'm hungry........It's been a long time......(grin!) Meanwhile, I did make slip knots on this warp as per your suggestion and so far it looks like I am going to like this much better than chaining because they undo much more easily than chains. Every once in a while I would have just a terrible time unchaining a bout. Thanks!
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