Monday, May 3, 2010

Huck Lace Circles with Beaded Fringe

I have not done many lace weaves, so when Mum and I were looking for some ideas for this year’s Sheep to Shawl and I found a pattern for Huck circles on eight shafts in Russell Groffs’ book, I knew that I had to weave it! We changed the original pattern and somehow managed to reduced the shafts and treadles from 8 to 6!
For added interest, as the body of the scarf is only plain weave, we designed a three colour succession. We pulled out all the Tencel and started trying out different colour combinations; some were safe like a blue gradation and others like the one that I chose were a little out there; Lemon to Gold to Lime. The colours are wonderful together and are really exciting.
I did have some trouble picking a weft colour, the original idea was to use black but against the lemon it looked too spotty. I tried dark grey, light grey, even burgundy and the one that worked was taupe! It made all the colours look fantastic and yet unified them.
The Huck circles are placed so they are only in one colour, but the stripes are not equal so the circles are interestingly spaced. The scarf is all about the Huck circles and the more attention that they get for being unexpected the better. Here is a close up of the Huck circle on the loom.
Here is the same circle after is has been washed and only lightly pressed, it will get its final pressing with McSteamy when there is some other stuff to be pressed. Also there wasn’t enough time before the guild meeting and I really wanted to bring it for Show and Tell!
I think that this scarf was meant to be because when I went to the bead bin there were all three colours in just the right sized beads, so I was able to echo the stripes with the beading! I even added little seed beads in the cup of the twisted fringe.
All and all this scarf was a pleasure, seeing the colours mix and blend together was just magical. Add the always mind blowing experience of having circles appear out of straight lines! I would totally do this pattern again and I may, it is going to be presented at the guild Sheep to Shawl planning meeting and I have been asked to be the weaver again this year! So I could be revisiting this pattern in a couple of months and turning it into a shawl.

9 comments:

Chiara Z said...

The lemon-gold-lime colour sequence looks great--especially in that order. I'm impressed with the combination of square and circular elements too. Unexpected but unified . . . I like!

Cindie said...

It's beautiful!!!

Marion B. said...

Your shawl is gorgious, beautiful, I love it.

Unknown said...

wonderful transition from one color to the next. Love it!!!

Anonymous said...

Verry beautiful and verry special
because of the cikels.

viele gruesse Patricia

dorothylochmaben said...

What a great project ! The colours look so soft and it will drape beautifully. The circles are magical the way they appear. the plain weaving looks great too. I am a bit nervous of plain weave but you have made it look easy !
Enjoy the show and tell - I'll bet yours will be the talk of the meeting !

Lynn Majidimehr said...

Your shawl is gorgeous, I love the way the colors work together!!!

Margreet said...

Ngaire, lovely scarf. I like the colours you have chosen together and with the weft, pattern and the beads it is just a unique scarf!
Looking forward to your next project.

Restless Knitter said...

The scarf is gorgeous! I may have to give that a try with some yarns I have.