Pick Up Pattern

I've decided to create a new blog for my weaving. I'll be posting about things I learn as I wander through the world of weaving.

First project here - a weft float lace scarf.

I used a dark brown Plymouth Yarn Royal Llama Silk as the warp, the weft is alternating bands of light brown Royal Llama Silk and Berroco Elements in pink. The llama/silk blend is very soft and rather sticky, it likes to hang onto itself and static was a bit of a problem. The Elements is wool and nylon and gives a shimmer to the scarf. I warped on 90 inches, 82 ends in a 10 dent reed. The finished scarf is 76 inches and I had about 8 inches loom waste. My loom waste seems small compared to what I've read about, perhaps that's because having fringe minimizes waste? The remainder of the "lost" length is "take up", the length and width lost as the fibers move over and under each other.

I made my own pick up stick, a piece of trim from the home improvement store and a couple minutes with a power sander was all it took. I rounded the long sides, smoothed any rough spots and used the sander to shape and bevel the tip. For just under $3 I was able to make 3 pick up sticks - now I can try more complicated patterns.

The pattern - When I read the directions this part didn't make a lot of sense so I just jumped in and gave it a try. Turns out this process is very simple! With the heddle in the down position (raising the slot strands) I inserted the pick up stick behind the heddle. The pattern was 5 up, then repeat (1 up 3 down) across to the last 5 ends, end with 5 up. Translated this means take the stick under 5 strands then 1 more (for the start of the repeated pattern) over 3; under 1 over 3  -- until there are 5 strands remaining up and go under those. The up and down had me confused because I was thinking in terms of over and under.

Pick-up stick on edge to weave a pattern row.

Pick-up stick flat and back to weave a standard row.

I started (and ended) the scarf with 9 pics (rows) of plain weave with the Berroco. The scarf is finished with hemstitching - I have got to remember to leave a long end for hemstitching when I start to weave! I forgot this time so I wove an end into the first row, then hemstitched.

When the scarf was finished I hemstitched the opposite end and trimmed the fringes on both ends to the same length. I gave it a quick soak in cold water with a wool wash, rinsed it and rolled the excess water out in a towel. It is much softer than it looks, the llama silk blend looks almost like jute but is really quite soft!