Wool, Silk, Stainless Steel, and a Bad Cold...

For the past nine days -- nine days! -- I've had that cold everybody's complaining about. I've been out of the house twice for my job and, well, to look for my own shadow, like Punxsutawney Phil.

Staying home can be great, however, if you keep at your fiber work. So I've completed and/or photographed a lot of pieces that are now posted on Etsy. The scarf above -- I call it my "Taos Pueblo Scarf" -- plays with colors of adobe brick and pale turquoise, using two different fabrics.

The base fabric is a scarf of wool and silk, a blank purchased from Dharma, which I dyed in aqua, then overdyed in brick, and then shibori-folded and clamped and immersed in a discharge vat.

The upper layer is a machine-knitted scarf in wool/stainless steel that I purchased from Habu Textiles in Manhattan. (It's a really fine yarn, 70% wool and 30% stainless steel -- just one of the many wonderful fibers you'll find at Habu. If you don't know about this supplier, you need to! Click here: http://www.habutextiles.com)

Honestly, I wasn't really pleased with the wool/silk base scarf on its own -- when, to my delight, I realized that the knitted scarf matched it really well. I sewed the two layers together, using a zigzag stitch on my machine, tracing the shibori patterns on the base scarf, like so:

This scarf is one of my favorites! But so is the single layer, using just the stainless steel/wool. Here's what it looks like, on its own, machine-knitted using a knit 5, slip 3 pattern:

When you stretch this scarf, it stays in place, creating a wonderful crimped and lacy effect.

I hope to publish more posts soon, highlighting some recent work and upcoming classes. Thanks for visiting!