Our guild has been working towards a Gallery Show in the summer and I’ve been really excited to get started on mine! I chose ‘C is for Corespun’ because at the time, I was really into corespinning. I still love the effect that corespinning has but have mostly been distracted by other projects. One of the aspects of corespun that I have been most intrigued by is in weaving. I don’t much love knitting with corespun – I tried once and just hated it. The roving that I had corespun overtop of the inner core kept moving and became dislodged which seemed counter to the whole purpose of making corespun! In the meantime, I wanted a corespun project to be my second weaving project and after a massive disaster (which I’ll share another time), I had a wild success!
This will end up as a table runner on our dining room table once the Guild Gallery Show is finished but until then, it will be stored to preserve it.
I loved weaving this and in all honesty, it took just one afternoon! You can not go wrong with that!
Above: Drumcarded Merino, Silk & firestar batt in various shades of yellow [Ravelry page] and a batt from Edgewood Garden Studio [Ravelry page].
Below: A batt from a session at my friend Diana’s house that was my first batt EVER! [Ravelry page]
My materials were some old, old, old Cascade Eco in a dark brown from my stash and three hanks of corespun (pictured above) that were unfortunately quite depleted after my disaster. In the end, they were more than enough to create what I had hoped for. I’m not sure how much yarn I actually used in the end since I don’t have accurate measurements of the corespun to begin with.
I washed and finished this in hot water with Eucalan and towel dried to prevent any felting. I wanted to full the fabric, which occurred and was perfect! The result has a lovely drape, which I was surprised about. I woven on my 7.5DPI heddle and beat firmly to create a nice fabric with no holes. I used my rotary cutter to finish the fringe ends, which was a tip from this book (which has been so immensely helpful, I can’t even begin to say!).
Selvedges are something I am definitely still working on but I read somewhere that edges are something all weavers, of all levels, are constantly perfecting. It made me feel better!
I also learned how to hem stitch recently but I couldn’t remember how to do it. I found this super helpful tutorial from Craftsy that creates a lovely edge and it turned out really nicely.
Overall, I’m really pleased with my second project! There are certainly worse, way worse, things that could have happened … which I’ll share soon! In other news, James’ lovey is getting some surgery soon. While I was photographing the table runner, James wanted to show me Chip, the name of his lovey, and sure enough: He needs some love! We can’t fix his poor nose because James “likes it that way” but I will have to fix his ‘neck’ to keep the stuffing inside his head. He was also recently burned on something, which I have decided I would rather not know about … Wish me luck fixing this guy!
Have you woven with your textured or ‘art’ yarns yet? I’d love to hear about your experience!
Weaving with corespun is fantastic, I agree! I’ve got 3 wall hangings in my house, two of which are woven projects with corespun, and coreless corespun yarn. My Mr. Ink loves them, as they were really weird and chunky batts and the weaving captures all the weird bits perfectly and shows them off.
Also, I really love your project. Your corespun is far neater and tidier than mine, but the look of “trapped” yarn as the warp traps the weft is still quite visible.