plaid scarf

Friendship Factor Adventure #3 – Terrific Tartan Scarf

| Valerie Baber Designs

The friendship factor adventure continues with a terrific Golden Plum Tartan scarf by Paula Veleta shown below. This beautiful scarf design is perfect for any wardrobe and a wonderful pattern to weave. Lisa and I spent some time discussing what we wanted to try next and we both felt weaving plaid or tartan was the next journey we wanted to explore. I love the Golden Plum Tartan pattern that Lisa found on WEBS you can link to the pattern here: Valley Yarns #99 Golden Plum Tartan PDF at WEBS | Yarn.com There is also a yarn kit you can purchase with the colours in the photo to make your yarn choice easy. The traditional tartan pattern was mixed up with a beautiful technique to make a lovely single strand stripe in the pattern instead of a thicker stripe normally seen. This give a modern touch to the design that we really enjoyed trying out. I hope they don’t mind me posting a photo of the pattern below as I promote how great this pattern really is.

Our thoughts and journey of the pattern:

Valerie:

Currently I am in love with plaid and tartan designs! I couldn’t wait to try the Golden Plum Tartan pattern. In order to use yarn from my stash I chose a fingerling weight yarn instead of the DK weight it was patterned in. This works as I wanted a slightly narrower scarf to wear. At the end of the scarf I added another set of the pattern to make it the length I wanted to achieve and compensate for the difference in yarn weights. It worked out great.

Being a designer I can’t help but change things from the inspiration of the original design. I love to experiment and see what can happen when I change this or that. Of course there were a few changes based on a couple of mistakes I made. I warped it backwards! Yes I really did. LOL. Usually I warp (rigid heddle loom) my shorter length scarves on my kitchen island, but this time I warped it in my studio forgetting that I warp on the right side of my loom in my kitchen and on the left side in my studio. Of course it doesn’t matter which side you warp it on with plain weaving, but when working a pattern like this you must warp it on the right side of your loom since the pattern is working from the right. Otherwise your tartan pattern turns out on the opposite side as you may have noticed in the photos. Because of this I also made another small mistake, you likely can’t see it. My advice is make sure you warp from the right side of your loom, unless you want it the other way.

For the yarn I used Tough Love Sock yarn from SweetGeorgia Yarns www.sweetgeorgiayarns.com I used a pink, burgundy, Ivory and a pale purple. The purple didn’t show up as well as I thought it would, but I love the subtle effect it gives. I would use a darker colour for this section as this is where the unique warping is done and on my scarf that effect is too light to see from a distance.

The Golden Plum Tartan scarf was a well written pattern and a wonderful weaving experience. The colour combinations that you could achieve with this designs would be great for both men and woman. Definitely a keeper on my list of “I need to make this one again”. Weaving with Lisa is always a great time while we choose our next project, choosing yarns, and weaving the item. We encourage each other to look outside the box and try new things that we didn’t think we could. Sharing each others goals and interesting weaving techniques we find on the online as we work together to achieve our weaving goals and grow our friendship.

Lisa:

For my tartan scarf, I chose browns and purples with green accent. The brown yarns and the purple yarn are Knit Picks City Tweed, a mixture of merino wool, alpaca and Donegal tweed. The green yarn is a silk and wool blend that I found in a yarn shop in Jackson, Wyoming on a trip to Yellowstone. All of the yarns were nice to use and the wool from Knit Picks bloomed nicely after a bath. The yarn is DK weight so this scarf will be warmer than our previous scarves. 

At first, I wanted to make the scarf to match my heavy jacket, but I did not have burgundy yarn in my stash so purple was my second choice. Browns are always a winner with me, but the dark brown I chose was a little close in value to the purple, so together the colors make more of a subtle difference rather than the stark change that one would expect in a plaid. The look suits me, however, since I don’t wear a lot of “loud” clothing. 

The pattern, which came from WEBS, was easy to understand and had a warping sequence that neither Valerie nor I had seen before – threading holes with a different color than the corresponding slot. This created thin stripes in the warp. Once warping was completed, it only took less than a week of evenings to weave this scarf, so it would make a nice last-minute gift to weave for someone if you are in a hurry. Just allow yourself time to wash your scarf and to twist the tassels.  

Weaving is the perfect metaphor for friendship! Different fibers and colors come together to make a pleasing design, just like different people in all shapes and sizes with different personalities come together to make the world a more beautiful place. The interaction of the warp and weft make an enduring strong cloth that provides warmth and protection against the cruel elements. A friendship with good attributes and character provides a place for friends to interact in an unconditionally accepting environment that serves as a buffer against life’s cruelties. 

Although we live far apart, I think Valerie and I have a woven cloth kind of friendship. I am having a great time learning from her in this process as we exchange ideas, discuss patterns and talk. Valerie is an awesome crochet designer and this trait naturally spills over into her weaving. She’s not afraid to do her own thing and that gives me courage to experiment more. I still continue to be amazed by how we can meet people through the Internet that we would not have known otherwise. Who would have thought that when I started selling crochet on Etsy in 2011 that I would be weaving with a crochet designer from Canada in 2021?  

Start your own Friendship Factor Adventure today with your friends, family and others you care about. Your adventure could be weaving, knitting, crocheting, sewing, painting, scrapbooking or anything you have a desired to learn. You never know where it will take you. As Lisa said is is hard to believe it has been so many years when we first met on Etsy helping to promote each others work. Now we are great friends who are helping each other along the weaving and crocheting path. Thanks Lisa for another enjoyable Friendship Factor Adventure. Looking forward to our next adventure with Expressive Weaving where we take a big step out of the box and try our hands at various unique techniques.

Various crochet patterns by Valerie Baber Designs are available at: 

Etsy store: www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com or Ravelry www.ravelry.com/designers/valerie-baber

Follow me on my Instagram, Twitter and here on my Blog for the newest patterns, free patterns, weaving adventure, crochet journey and other fiber related items. 

Have a fibertastic day!

Playing with plaid – weaving a scarf for my husband

| Valerie Baber Designs

Playing with Plaid while I was weaving a scarf for my husband. A personal request from my husband who wanted a scarf in his favourite colour from Sweetgeorgia Yarns Chili Chocolate (this colour is no longer available but there is a similar one). I decided to do a plaid version as if feel it is a nice design for a man but instead of weaving the plaid throughout the scarf I chose to only weave it at the bottoms and leave the middle with a more subtle strip pattern due to the warping. The colours in the stripes are a brown and a beige to give a more neutral effect to the design. The base colour yarn is a hand painted yarn and adds lots of splashes of subtle colour changes throughout the design. I am currently weaving another “plaid” style pattern where the yarn does most of the work because of how it is dyed. I will show pictures of this scarf at a later date.

Weaving with a plaid design is very enjoyable as it is interesting and keeps you focused while weaving. My next goal is to try a much bigger scarf that has a deconstructed plaid essence. The pattern I found was in my Handwoven (handwovenmagazine.com). That weaving adventure is for another day!

Various crochet patterns by Valerie Baber Designs are available at: 

Etsy store: www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com or Ravelry www.ravelry.com/designers/valerie-baber

Follow me on my Instagram, Twitter and here on my Blog for the newest patterns, free patterns, weaving adventure, crochet journey and other fiber related items. 

Have a fibertastic day!

Men’s Plaid Tartan style scarf

| Valerie Baber Designs

plaid scarf men's gray combo

Men’s Plaid Tartan scarf is perfect for this fall and winter adding a unique and stylish touch to your wardrobe. This is a great scarf for men and woman with colours more feminine coming soon.  There will be hand warmers in the colours to match and various options down the road so keep an eye out for what I add to the Plaid Tartan Collection soon.  Made with beautiful hand painted merino wool from http://www.sweetgeorgiayarns.com and http://www.malabrigoyarn.com  More pictures below including the hand warmers that go with the Plaid Tartan scarf.  Available now at http://www.valeriebaberdesign.com or http://www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com

plaid scarf men's gray combo2plaid scarf men's gray combo hand warmers1plaid scarf men's gray combo6plaid scarf men's gray combo hand warmers

Sweet Time at Sweetgeorgia Yarns

| Valerie Baber Designs

sweetgeorgia2
Sweet time at Sweetgeorgia Yarns in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. With knitting and crocheting always on my mind and new designs dancing around in my head I decided the best thing to do to start off our vacation in Vancouver was to make my first stop Sweetgeoria Yarns http://www.sweetgeorgiayarns.com . A most wonderful decision in my mind as the stunning colours of their beautiful yarns as I first walked into the store flowed seamlessly with the beautiful flowers blooming around Vancouver as we drove from the Airport to my first destination. It was so hard not to spend more time looking at all the beautiful colours and fibres as my family patiently waited for me to finish. As you know it is extremely hard to pull yourself away from a vast collection of yarn in front of you. 🙂

These walls were covered in various yarns and colour ways. It is so hard to choose as they are all so lovely.

With my first batch of yarn I was working on an Alberta Tartan scarf for a custom order that is reminiscent of the Alberta Tartan. I used the Deep Cove and Botanical from Sweetgeorgia yarns to design these. The plaid one is not finished as I haven’t decided on which clasps I want to use from my stock. I am deciding if I should pattern the Tartan plaid version. They are both still in the finishing design stage and I may make changes but this gives you an idea of what they will look like. I will also change the blue so it is more true to the Alberta Tartan Colours.

I first tried Sweetgeorgia yarns last year on my trip to Victoria and Vancouver when I popped into The Beehive Wool Shop http://www.beehivewoolshop.com/ in Victoria. This is one of the biggest yarn stores I have been in. A must see if you are ever in Victoria, B.C. Canada.

I adore the colour combinations and hand painted techniques of Sweetgeoria yarns and have decided to add it to my designs as well sell it with some of my knitting and crochet patterns. You can find some of my knitting kits on my online store http://www.intricateknits.etsy.com I will be adding more in the late summer and early fall.

I had the pleasure of a tour into the back where they create their amazing colour ways and more. Here are some pictures of the work in progress.

I am looking forward to adding more Canadian content to my designs and using different fibres and colour ways to enhance my work. I love using a variety of different yarns from different sources. I am often inspired by the yarn itself as I begin to design my next piece. Hand painted yarns are a true joy to work with. The ever changing colours keep you interested as you knit or crochet along adding a unique essence to each design. Have a wonderful day today.