I think I may be suffering from a new malady. I call it ICWTI or I Can Weave That Instead. I see something on the Friends Activity page in Ravelry, or on someone’s blog, and start thinking about how to do it faster/better/prettier on a loom.

A few months back the Yarn Harlot recently went on a bit of a Noro Stripe Scarf thing. Now I do like the pattern, but I hate the yarn and don’t fancy doing that much plain ribbing when there’s a faster alternative.

There just happens to be a reasonable substitue for the yarn locally, which I picked up in a friend’s stash busting sale:

So I warped up the loom with some Bendigo 3ply in purple – a colour common to both skeins of Vintage Hues. Then after some cursing over knots in the yarn (it seems it suffers from ‘Noro knots’ as much as the original, but at least it’s not scratchy, contains no mohair, and doesn’t grey out from time to time) I had two shuttles wound and ready.

I started weaving. Two picks of each colour made stripes a little narrower than in the knitted version of the scarf, but I found I preferred it to three.

Watching the colours shift and interact was addictive. I didn’t stop until the scarf was finished.

I love it. The colours are so vibrant and quite lurid together in places, but the effect over the whole is harmonious and beautiful.

After a wash it bloomed and little and smelled deliciously sheepy. A lot of dye came out in the water, but the scarf didn’t appear to be affected by bleeding or the colours fading.

So if you have a loom and fancy a Noro Stripe Scarf, but don’t fancy all the ribbing, try replicating it in weaving. It works just as well as on the needles.

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In other weaving news… I’ve decided to sew in the warp ends on the denim rag rug. It’s tedious and time-consuming, but I think (and hope) it’ll look and wear better.

It’s gonna take a while, though. Once I’ve done the first edge I’ll cut it off the loom completely and be able to warp up another project. But for now it’s easier to work on it in place.