An especially fibery day today. Most significantly, the Troublesome Scarf is finished!

Of course, given the history of this scarf, fate decreed one final challenge. Specifically, a dark smudge that appears at regular intervals down the center line of the cloth. Because my loom is old (dating from perhaps the 60s), my initial suspicion was that I hadn’t adequately cleaned the reed or one of the heddles. However, I think the culprit may have been the hooks connecting the heddle bars to the frames:

As you can see, these are somewhat corroded. I’ll clean them before my next project goes on the loom, but most of the smudging came out with careful washing. Even with my admittedly pronounced perfectionistic streak, I think the scarf looks fine, and deem it wearable in the workplace.

I also had my second spinning class. I’m finding that taking a class prompts me to do things I wouldn’t have tried otherwise; today I made my first three-ply yarn. Afterwards, I succumbed to the allure of some braids of (to use the technical term) fluff. I am weak, but they are beautiful.

So, when I got home, I took to the spindle and spun a few yards of two-ply using one of the new techniques I’d just learned.

Feeling confident, I proceeded to carry on spinning and created…

…this.

Yech.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other projects brewing. For one, I’ve been itching to try tambour embroidery with cloth that’s still on the loom. I’m still in the early stages of planning this project, and I want to have a back-up plan for the warp in case the idea doesn’t pan out, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless.

I’ve also got a rug warp wound and ready to be put on the loom. What I don’t have: weft. I’m thinking of tying together all of the thrums and scraps of yarn left from my various other projects, wrapping them on my ski shuttle, and seeing what happens.

Yep, the crafting has definitely taken a textile turn of late. There’s plenty else on the to-do list, though, and maybe one of these years I’ll get to it all.