6 Shaft Shadow Weave in Chenille

The last time I did color & weave or a shadow weave, it was on 4 shafts. My 1st piece was a log cabin runner woven on my rigid heddle loom. It was my favorite, until.... I got my floor loom. I did a table runner in 4 color log cabin. It still is one of my all time favorites. I've been having a hard time deciding what to make for some upcoming craft shows. Ultimately I decided to try to use up my chenille and make some shadow weave scarves. 

When I searched "8 shaft shadow weave", I found several links to Eva Stossel's blog. Using her specs as a guideline, I began to wind the warp. In the end, I went with a 6 shaft pattern and I decided on a sett of 17 1/2. Why this odd sett? I have two reeds; a 5 dent & a 10 dent. Eva recommends a sett of 16-18 for her various projects using chenille. I should add, I'm using 1400 ypp rayon chenille. The closest I could get is 17 or 17 1/2 epi. I decided to go with the closer sett.  This whole experience has sold me on the absolute necessity of an 8 dent reed ;)

Threading; my least favorite part 

Here is my draft.

Fast forward about a day and im having threading issues. I'd fix one error only to weave another inch or two before finding another. I also thought I could get away without floating selvedges. That was another bad plan. After blowing through almost 2 bobbins and about twice as much warp as I had planned for sampling, the pattern was perfect......

....sort of. I noticed that certain warp threads appear as if they are floating. This is due to the sett of 17 1/2. To sley in the 10 dent reed, I sleyed 2,2,2,1. The threads that appear to be floats are where one thread is sleyed in a dent. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will even out when off the loom. 

I did another version using purple....

 

And another with green in a diamond pattern....

Fringe is a must with these scarves and fringing chenille was a lot more tedious than I had anticipated. The fringe looks great, but I'm not looking forward to fringing the rest!

Fast forward to wet finishing. I soaked the 1st scarf in hot water. The water turned pink immediately so I continued rinsing until the water was clear. I rolled the scarf in a towel & then put it in the dryer. Some of the fringe got a little wonky but the finished fabric is like "buttah" 😉

Happy Weaving!

Next up, Fancy Twills on the 8 shaft 😀