When I got married in 2013, I got a great present from Bart & Francis, the “Belgian Boys”: I was allowed to get a generous amount of yarn from their shop for free. I visited their stall at the Breidagen in Groningen and chose some very beautiful silk. Silk is awesome: it’s warm if you are cold and cool if you are warm. It also has a beautiful shine. And Bart & Francis have some very pretty silks to choose from!
Yesterday I decided to start a weaving project in 100% silk. I chose two of their beautiful skeins of Tussah silk from my stash (500m/50g) and warped my loom. I wanted to weave small squares this time. I warped the loom with 15 groups of 10 threads, alternating the colours. Then I found out that my reed did not have 75 dents, but 74, so the final group was only 8 threads wide. Very cringe-worthy if you have slight OCD tendencies…
I consoled myself by deciding that I would carry the yarn of the opposing colour up along that side, to balance it out. And I started weaving, alternating 10 rows of each colour for a balanced weave. The silk performed lovely and was crisp and cooperative.
The weaving is very enjoyable. The silk yarns are dyed slightly semi-solid, so the dark blue one sometimes is dark greenish, or grey, and the lilac one turns silver or purple from time to time. It’s fascinating! This project will definitely take more time than the previous ones because of the going back and forth between the colours, and also because I have a longer warp since I have plenty of yarn. I don’t mind, I’m really enjoying the process!
