As anticipated, this second skein of art yarn is thinner than my first—more suitable for the pin loom. It seems a bit of a shame to cut it up; it reminds me of Native American jewelry.
The finished-and-ready-to-use art yarn
The colors in this skein are toned down, so let’s see how its squares turn out.
I randomly chose one end of the skein and warped L1.
L1
Then I considered several options for L2. Wrapping five pins (as I did in the Previous Post) was out of the question.
L2—wrapping five pins
Skipping a few rows was worth considering. I had two reservations though:
- The supplemental yarn, if used in L2 as well as L3&L4, might be too overwhelming.
- There’s a pretty bit of art yarn right at the end here, and I don’t want to waste it in the tail zone.
L2—skipping a few rows
So I opted for a full second layer of art yarn. It ended in a skinny, somewhat ordinary length of yarn I thought I could muster the courage to cut.
Full L1&L2 of art yarn
Next I had to choose my supplemental yarn. The overall look suggested blue to me (this is probably because this section of the art yarn is plied with blue silk).
I laid one strand of six different colors across the square
A close-up of the six colors
I eliminated three, and was sure I wouldn’t choose the aqua/turquoise color
The medium blue was a good bet, but I love green too!
I laid some of the colors I’d rejected on the rest of the skein of art yarn and could see that they’d get their turn later. Blue it was.
I tied the yarn on near Cr3 and warped L3
Wrapping the yarn around the loom five times gave me an idea of how blue the finished square might look
This is the square underway. I like it!
Meanwhile, since I had located two not-in-use Wunderwag looms, I decided to warp up another square. I opted for the same arrangement—L1&L2 with art yarn; L3&L4 with supplemental yarn.
L1&L2
These two layers obviously suggested red which is one color I’m short on. Besides, red supplementary yarn would be too much red. There’s a LOT going on with the art yarn here, so I opted for a slightly variegated homespun. The section readily available happened to be a dark red/dark green color. There’s enough of it to handle L3&L4. I think it will enhance the art yarn colors without drawing attention to itself.
I chose a muted complementary yarn for L3&L4
TIP: Now, after several experiences weaving with art yarn, I’ve discovered that it can be very difficult weaving the last row. (R16 is typically difficult to weave anyway.) It’s not only difficult to weave because of tight yarn, but visibility is also a factor. The thick and fluffy bits make it hard to see the individual warps. I could try the trick of threading a piece of floss or a spare needle through that row long before I near the end of weaving the square, but I think in addition, it would probably be a good idea to not use art yarn in the last row of L2. The blue square was not difficult, but the red one and the one I wove last night were, so you’d have to decide based on overall distribution of thick yarn.
Finished squares