Sunset Scarf Weaving Pattern

It's time for another free pattern and this time I'd thought I'd talk through the basics of how I design my handwoven scarves.

Photography has always been a passion of mine and I especially love taking photos of the landscape and sky around us.

Living in West Kilbride on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland has given me lots of inspiration over the years since we moved here. Regular walks down the beach and through the local glen, and watching the sky from our house have given me a library that I keep diving back to for new pattern ideas.

The sunset photo below is one such example of this and is the inspiration behind this post's pattern.

If I'm designing for a plain weave cloth I generally look at the colours from the photograph and then think of them as blocks of colour. So, in the photos above I would look at the clouds and take a generalisation of the different colours in the horizontal and then use these blocks to make the warp colour pattern.

I've simplified the colours quite a bit in this pattern and just taken the purple, a dark blue, red and yellow and decided to have them blend straight from one colour to the next. This gives the effects of the colour of the clouds blending together as they are in the photo.

The weft colours used are the same as the warp and playing with large blocks of colour again in the weft gives the striking effect of the sky in the photo.

I have ignored the trees in this photo this time but there's nothing to say that their colour and texture couldn't be used in another design.

I do have a habit of revisiting certain photos or days for inspiration as each time it could lead to another idea for patterns.

This method is easy enough to adapt to your own inspiration and photos. The joy of having great cameras on your phone these days does mean it's easy to take a quick snap of something and then come back to it later. 

You could use photo editing software to pixellate or blur the photo which can help to see the colours.

Pixellated Version
 
Blurred Version

There is also a very low tech method which is to look at your image and squint your eyes. You should be able to then see the colours become more fuzzy but defined. This is how I do it most of the time.

Now you know how the pattern came about it's about time to give you the actual pattern.

You can buy this pattern with the yarn as a kit which you can find on our website here.

My aim is to make our blog patterns available to everyone so that's why we are posting the patterns for free on our website as well as selling them as kits.

Sunset Scarf Pattern

Loom:
Rigid Heddle Loom. You can also use a table loom at the same sett as for the rigid heddle loom and weave as plain weave or for a twill use a sett of 10 dpi.

Reed/Sett:
7.5 or 8dpi

Weaving width in Reed: 25cm/10"

Yarn:
Eden Cottage Yarns Millburn DK in
1x50g ball in Harvest Gold
1x50g ball in Dogwood
1x50g ball in Night Sky
1x50g ball in Damson

This yarn does give a lovely silky smooth drape but you can use any other DK yarn in similar or different colours. For choosing contrasting colours check out our Cornish Summer Skies blog post.

Warp Length: 2.5m/8'2"

Total Number of Warp Threads: 78

Warping Instructions:
Thread your loom in the following colour order with the number being a single warp thread.

Weaving Instructions:
The weft stripes can be as big or as narrow as you want them to be. You can also weave the stripes following the warping order too. Remember that this is your scarf that you are weaving so feel free to make it your own.
Do make sure that you are not beating too hard and also that you start the next colour to the opposite side of where you finished the last colour.

Finishing your cloth:
Once you've finished weaving you can either knot your fringes or twist them and knot them. Wash your cloth in a sink of hot water with wool wash and then remove excess water. Iron your scarf whilst it's wet and then lay flat to dry.

Finished Size after washing:
21cm/8" wide by 1.9m/6’5” long excluding fringes

I'm more than happy for you to make this scarf in other yarns in other colours so do feel free to use your stash or use other yarns. 

I'd love to see your finished versions of this scarf so if you do please tag #weftblown and we will see what you've made.

I hope this pattern helps to give you an idea on how to design your own scarves and patterns and if you need help then you can email us at info@weftblown.com. Unfortunately we don't get notifications on comments on our blog posts so email is the easiest and best way to get in touch.

The pattern is made available for personal use only.