As you know, I do enjoy Star Trek and I do love yarn but I was hesitant to purchase more yarn as my yarn baskets runneth over.
At the same time I was admiring the yarn, I read about how certain hand-dyed yarns could be woven with a pooled warp - a technique by which blocks of colors are lined up and create controlled symmetry.
The clincher for buying the Star Trek colorway was that I could make an accompanying scarf to David's hat. I'm not sure if he's a scarf guy (or a hat guy for that matter) but I know he's a Star Trek guy. He and his wife Lori have their own American Cancer Society Relay for Life team called, the "Star Trekkers". I had to make a prayer scarf for them.
The warp turned out to be magic. Lorna's Laces hand-painted yarn was a true palindrome skein: brown-blue-red-gold/gold-red-blue-brown/brown-blue-red-gold, the colors repeated itself forwards and backwards. (I'm geeky about palindromes too. You know, like: "Madam, I'm Adam" or Nurses Run.)
Halfway through warping the 10" Cricket loom the color blocks started shifting and getting wonky. The lightweight Ikea table was moving and being pulled in by the warp tension. The heaviest thing in my craftroom was my sewing machine and it worked well for holding the table in place.
I chose mmmMalabrigo sock in the colorway Chocolate Amargo for the weft color because, well, chocolate. It turned out to be thicker than the Lorna's Laces and the weaving was becoming more weft-faced, i.e. the warp was being hidden by the vertical brown yarn. It was starting to look like a secret Star Trek manly scarf.
The scarf took a little over a week from start to finish and yesterday I cut the scarf off the loom and twisted the fringe with my nifty Conair hair-braider.
I gotta say this woven scarf is the most beautiful thing I've ever made. It's soft, drapey, and the pooled colors are amazing. The Chocolate Amargo ("bitter chocolate") is shades of brown with streaks of silver - like the tails of shooting stars.
Just when I thought the weaving experience couldn't get any better - the prequel Star Trek movie played on TV last Sunday - twice - while I was weaving. Then a few days later I watched Into Darkness via Netflix streaming. The scarf was truly infused and woven with Star Trek virtues: Goodness, Courage, Friendship, and Hope. It's a beautiful thing.
David and Lori, my dear old friends, Live Long and Prosper.
