It's not often I am left speechless, but this week when I saw one of my customer's makes, I was!
One of the Sconchlet's nursery teachers, Miss Helen, (those with children will know how hard it is to drop the 'miss' here...) had come into the shop a little while ago with her daughter, Sarah. They were after some gorgeously soft yarn for a baby blanket and chose Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, which is always a favourite for baby items. These are the colours they decided on:
However, this was not to knit or crochet with - they were going to weave with it! Helen's mum, Jill, is a weaver and lives over in France. Helen explained how one of Sarah's teachers had gone on maternity leave and that Sarah had wanted to give her a special gift - and what better gift than handmade? So Granny had been enlisted to help weave a blanket.
Helen explained to me how Sarah designed the blanket pattern herself - her teacher is a maths teacher, and as Sarah also loves maths, she decided to use the Fibonacci sequence!
Sarah had never done any weaving before, but as it was to be a gift from her, Granny made sure that Sarah was well involved! So they went over to visit Granny and began the blanket.
Helen said: 'the process turned out to be a lot more complicated than Sarah and I had thought! More calculations followed, then the process of warping the loom with one of our chosen colours began - a fiddly job which Sarah took on with moderate enthusiasm and surprising patience - for a teenager who has not inherited the 'craft gene'!'
You can see the two of them here getting the loom ready:
Once it was all set up, the weaving began.
It soon began to take shape:
Sarah was able to complete the first few stripes whilst they were there, but Granny finished it off when Sarah had to return to school.
The blanket was then fiished with a simple satin ribbon around the edge. I think you will agree, it really is beautiful:
The thing that really struck me with this blanket was how soft it was. When I think about weaving, I think of something quite stiff and unflexible in my hands. But this was so soft. I would say softer than had it been knitted or crocheted even. And you can see the warp thread through it, which I think is a really nice effect. I didn't want to hand it back once I had felt it!
Thank you to Helen for sharing this process with us, and well done to Sarah and Jill! I am sure your teacher will love it!
Don't forget that you can share your makes on any of the Sconch social media accounts (there are links at the top of the page!) and you can also join our Facebook group to see what other people are making and get advice, share crafty news and generally have a giggle...
Sam x
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