Random wrap ikat scarf in silk
It's the first week of the new year and I've already finished my a weave a month project for January. It's another indigo random wrap ikat scarf, this time in silk. This is the second project in Ikat: The Essential Handbook to Weaving with Resists by Mary Zicafoose. See all my projects from this book.
Preparing and weaving the yarn
I played around with smaller wraps and some new shapes: a zigzag, checkerboard, closed circle, and open circle. I drew myself a diagram of my wraps but totally messed up the order... the middle rows are swapped.
My only goal for this scarf was to get a darker shade of blue from the indigo. After just one dip, I could see it had worked! Some guesses why: I let the vat sit overnight before dyeing; I might have created a stronger vat with this recipe (aka more indigo), and I made sure the liquid didn't look like miso soup this time before I dipped (and stopped when I'd thoroughly disturbed the liquid).
Weaving was relatively straightforward... but the indigo rubbed off everywhere: on my hands, on the loom, on the shuttle, you name it. Not sure if it's because of the darker blue, improper rinsing, or something else. Regardless, I need to clean my equipment before the next project... or weave another indigo project, I guess!
Finished project
I'm SO in love with this piece! 😍 The dye isn't uniform; there's beautiful variation in shades of blue. And the entire piece has this gorgeous sheen. The hand is lovely: sturdy with a nice drape. Unlike my first ikat project, I would actually wear this one as a scarf. (I've 100% decided that the first yardage I weave for clothing will be ikat indigo-dyed silk.)
Here are some of my favorite sections. (You can see that one of the threads shifted by an inch or two. That's because a small piece of one of my threads broke/was snipped at the cross-end. Super noticeable!)
Clockwise from the top-left:
These are my two favorite parts of the scarf! Definitely thinking about how to incorporate them into future non-random designs.
These were supposed to be circles... I forgot to take into account the finished width of the warp when off the warping board.
These were some "arches" -- I think they're kinda cool! I also love how the fringe ended with some resisted yarn.
I love how patchy the dye looks in this section.
And here's the finished scarf modeled by my new Sally.
Weaver's notes
Sett: 30 EPI, 3 per dent in a 10 dent reed
Warp length: 3 yards
Yarn (both from Georgia Yarn Co):
Warp: 20/2 silk, natural
Weft: 30/2 silk, natural
Total ends: 330
Fringe: Hemstitched on the loom in groups of 10 ends, trimmed edges to 7″ then hand twisted two-ply fringes
I completely forgot to measure the piece before wet-finishing! Oops...
Measurements On loom / Post-washing
Width: 11" in reed / 10"
Length: n/a / 78"
Dyers notes
I've started naming my indigo vats. This helps me keep all my notes straight -- I have project notes for each piece and dyeing notes for each vat (since they can be a part of multiple projects).
Ikat resist: Ikat cellophane
Vat: A fructose vat ("Buckle"), made in a large stock pot and left to sit overnight before dyeing