it's alive!

Collapse weave; another thing off my weavers bucket list of things to try.  As you can tell by the number of pictures I took, I was pretty excited about the results.  While most weaving transforms a bit when you finish it by washing, this actually came alive in my hands.  The first scarf that I cut off; cause I couldn't wait to see what it would do, had a weft of Habu's wool crepe that  shrinks about 30% once it touches water.  The warp is 8/2 tencel in a 3/1 twill that has a natural tendency to collapse.  Since the wool took away a bit of the softness of the tencel I tried a fine bamboo for the weft on the next 2 scarves. The finer the weft the more likely it will collapse.
I liked the hand of the bamboo weft scarves better, and also liked that I could see more of the scarf because they didn't collapse nearly as much.  But  truth be told I spent about a half hour just playing with the Habu scarf; playing with the accordion pleats, sans music. Truly, we have to get our weaving excitement where we can, so I foresee more collapse weave in my future. I would love to see some shawl width fabric, with that wonderful texture.  So far I think it would be fun to use a collapse weave section in some woven wristers and even, heaven forbid,  an actual garment. I have vowed that I hate sewing but the last issue of

Handwoven November/December 2013

has a collapse weave top that has me thinking of the possibilities.  Yikes.  Unfortunately this is slow cloth at its slowest.  Weaving with 2/48 wool crepe was like weaving with fly hair but, oh so worth the results.

This is the habu weft scarf as I am washing it.

I tried ladder hemstiching on an end piece, hoping to find a way to add buttons to shorter pieces to make a cowl.

So much excietment in one project.  Here is my new handy dandy fringe twister, oh the joy!