Having had success using up the ikat leftovers, I dug out some more unused warp end. These were from a mistake-ridden shawl that was the last item I made on the table loom before I got my floor loom. I had two colours, one of which I still had some yarn on the cone. I dug out more of the same kind of yarn (Bendigo classic 3ply) in colours that might go with the leftovers. And I went looking for project ideas.

I was inspired by the ikat scarf stripes, but this time I wanted to do more than tabby. I thought of the twill stripe project in Next Steps in Weaving, and when I counted up how many ends I had and measured the remaining warp I had almost enough for the stripes. All I had to do was make the central stripe narrower and it would work.

For the narrow stripes between the twill ones and the weft I could have used a lighter salmon pink or a dark blue. I decided on the latter, as I liked the idea of a more subtle low contrast.

Warping was a challenge, since most of the ends were already cut so there was no cross. Once I had tied it on and spread it across a raddle, I wove the lease sticks through chunks of warp to provide some evening and tension. Even then, once the warp was on I had to adjust the tension quite a bit before it was even enough.

When I got weaving, I tied up the middle four pedals to match the draft and started carefully working my way through them in the eight step order to make the pattern. When I’d done a few cm I had it memorised. Only then did I remember that I have eight pedals, and all I needed to do was tie up them up so I can simply work from pedal 1 to 8 over and over.

This is, after all, one of the reasons I bought the loom!

The result of all the fiddling with the warp has been so worth it. I’m loving how it’s coming out. This one may be a keeper.