I love that Elisabeth Hill isn’t timid when she designs and weaves. She seems to have an uncanny sense of how color combinations and weave structures work together on the loom, and she jumps wholeheartedly into projects. The Bubbles Shawl in the Loom Theory Four-Shaft Scarf Collection is no exception. Elisabeth combined 2 colors of orange wool with a pop of light blue in deflected doubleweave to create a shawl that is light and airy yet warm and cozy.
Elisabeth Hill’s Bubbles Shawl.
Designer Elisabeth Hill’s Statement
UTE BARGMANN, a gem of a friend, gave me The Virginia West Swatch Book, a gem of a book. A sample at the end of the book set off my “deflection detection.” It was woven in a thick, slubby rayon blend and suggested as a curtain fabric, but I was immediately curious to see what would happen if it was woven in a fine wool. I wanted to maximize deflection without getting a felted fabric so 20/2 Mora was a perfect choice for the 2 main colors, with a fulling singles, Fårö, used as the outline threads. Both yarns come in great colors, and when sett at 20 ends per inch, the result is a light, airy, warm fabric.
I used a couple of special weaving techniques to avoid buildup at the selvedges from changing weft colors frequently and to allow the Salmon warp to create a border along the length of the shawl. The method I used to avoid selvedge buildup works when you have only 2 picks of the same color; instead of overlapping and fastening the ends at the selvedge, bring your ends to the center of the piece and overlap them on the second pick. To keep the Copper inside the Salmon border of the shawl, I didn’t use floating selvedges that would have brought the Copper to the edge of the shawl. Both techniques take a bit more time at the loom, but in my opinion, they are worth the extra time and effort.
Weave the Bubbles Shawl in Elisabeth’s colors or choose your own combination. There are all kinds of colorways you could create. It may help if you keep in mind that Elisabeth paired 2 similar colors with a pop of color from the other side of the color wheel.
Weave well,
Susan
Project at a Glance
PROJECT TYPE: 4-shaft.
STRUCTURE: Deflected doubleweave.
EQUIPMENT: 4-shaft loom, 21" weaving width; 10-dent reed; 3 shuttles; 3 bobbins.
YARNS: 20/2 wool (4,712 yd/lb; Mora; Vävstuga). 6/1 wool (2,976 yd/lb; Fårö; Vävstuga).
OTHER SUPPLIES: Wool wash.