Inner Glow Scarf

Contrast in value brings the magic to this design—stripes of light yarn next to dark yarn, with just a bit of color.

About this Project

Tien Chiu created this design for a weave-along that had the theme “muted colors in plain weave.” Because most of her work is in brilliant colors and she loves to weave complicated structures on a 24-shaft loom, the theme posed quite a challenge: How do you make muted colors interesting when you’re drawn to bright shades? Especially in the simplest structure of all? The answer, as with most things color, was to add contrast in value (light vs dark). When you put a dark color next to a light color, a design immediately becomes bolder and more dramatic than if you were to use two yarns with similar value. Tien started with white warp stripes against a dark brown background, and then added a bit of glow by making those white stripes fade rapidly to darkness along each side. She copied the stripes into the weft to create a glowing dot where they crossed. The result wasn’t quite interesting enough, so she added a tiny bit of color to the stripes—shades of brown and shades of blue for contrast. That added just enough color variation (while staying on theme) to make the design feel exciting—even to a color magpie.

Contents

• Project Instructions PDF
• Scarf WIF

Details

Structure
Plain weave.

Equipment
2-shaft loom, 10" weaving width; 9- or 12-dent reed; 1 shuttle; 9 bobbins.

Yarns
Warp: 8/2 cotton (3,360 yd/lb; Maurice Brassard), #83 Noir, 258 yd; #1313 Brun moyen, 54 yd; #1183 Cannelle, 66 yd; #112 Slate, 48 yd; #94 Vieux bleu, 6 yd; #368 Chambray and #100 Naturel, 42 yd each; #4275 Charcoal and #1525 Pêche, 12 yd each.

Weft: 8/2 cotton, #83 Noir, 360 yd; #368 Chambray, 6 yd; #94 Vieux bleu, 2 yd; #1183 Cannelle and #100 Naturel, 8 yd each; #1313 Brun moyen and #112 Slate, 7 yd each; #4275 Charcoal and #1525 Pêche, 3 yd each.

Dimensions
Width in the reed: 10".
Woven length: (measured under tension on the loom) 72".
Finished size: (after wet-finishing) 9" × 63" plus 4½" fringe.

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