I was smartly upbraided the other day for saying that when I play with variegated yarn in weaving I produce happy accidents that resemble ikat, which I call faux ikat. Apparently, I’m not allowed to use that word, which is regarded as derogatory, even for my own work.

Ah well.

Anyhow, my husband, after 14 years of marriage, shopped yarn for me for the first time and sent back 5.5 kilos from Lucknow. It is a mix of cotton, cotton blend and polyester/rayon. Among the hanks are some like this, which I think is a blend, if not completely synthetic, and it seemed exactly the right thing to try and do the “painted warp” thing.

The hank was about 21” long, so I thought about making a warp 84” long, but this isn’t a palindrome skein, none of the colours repeats or reverses, so instead I followed the instructions here to warp using my DIY warping board. It took slightly longer than direct warping, and the hardest part was actually threading the heddle and maintaining a tension good enough to tie on to the back warp beam. I’ve never warped front-to-back before. Somehow, since this is such a tiny loom, I managed it.

Using the tips on the forums, I’m using black Anchor left over from my Goshions, since it is thinner, and better than white for showing off the colours. My warp circle ended up at around 94”, which clearly isn’t a multiple of 21”.

Also using my new End Feed Shuttle Fly Shuttle (local made and cost the equivalent of $2!!!). Winding the pirn by hand and trying to be careful about not letting the extremely sharp points hurt me.

I should have got a longer scarf, only the yarn that I tied to the back apron rod to connect it to the warp beam broke. The plastic things that came with the loom never worked for me, the left back one consistently pops out, and now, in fact, the flat bit at the pointy end is actually broken, so there’s no point trying to use it again anyway. I need to find some strong cotton instead.

After the wash and tumble dry, I’m wondering about the yarn content again, since what looked unplied before now looks as though it has plies. Also, while the effect is cool, I think I’d like it better if the lengths of colour were longer.

To use as a dupatta or stole, I should really work with my Flip, perhaps, since the 7” or less of the SampleIt’s product is rather narrow.