Wool Throws!

Flush with the success from the overshot Snowflake towels, I warped the Beast for overshot throws in 100% wool.

Ambitious, yes, but most gratifying.

The lady who used to own Vice Yarns is a lovely friend. She gifted me a number of mostly spent cones of undyed fingering weight wool. She had pulled off enough to make hanks to dye, but there was not enough yardage left on the cones for a full hank withot knots. So, the yarn was of no further use to her, the quality of her hand dyed skeins were such she avoided knots at all costs.

I kept these for several years knowing I wanted to weave with them. My thought was to dye them and use them as weft.

I bought several pound cones of undyed yarn, as well as worsted weight yarn for this project.

The worsted was Malabrigo Rios in Cumparista.

I thought the burgundy parts would pop against the natural, but it turned out maroon. 

Anyway, the fingering on the mostly spent cones was slightly thicker than the full cones of fingering I bought. As a result, I decided to use the slightly thicker yarn for the warp and the thinner for weft tabby, which meant my warp was chock full of knots!!

It was certainly an exercise in patience with the weaving, as I used supplemental threads on warp weights to take the knots out. At one point I had no less than thirteen lines hanging off the back of the loom, not including my floating selvages.  However, there are no knots in my finished pieces. Thank goodness!

The sett was 15, and I sectionally warped 5 yards. 

The pattern was an 8-shaft overshot from the Strickler book, #486.

After I dressed the loom, I wove for half an hour and moved onto something else, allowing this project to languish for a few weeks, until I decided I really needed the loom for baby blankets. 

For a week and a half, I dedicated as much of my free time as I could. Before I knew it, the first throw was done. It took me most of a Saturday to weave the second, as I had finally gotten my rhythm down and speed up. 

The really neat thing about the second one?

I kept track of how many grams of weft the first one consumed, 17.637. I rifled through my stash and wound some slightly heavier worsted weight yarn I hand dyed back in 2013. I loved the color. 

I had 17.75 ounces of it!

I used every bit of it.

Both are the same size: 47” x 63”. 

They are heavy and very warm, complete with hand sewn hems, no less. 

Perfect for sofa naps!