May I Touch?

Several months ago I met up with a friend from nursing school to celebrate a very important birthday. Oh, who am I kidding? At this age they are all important. Anyway, we had not seen each other since graduation for many many years (or should I say decades?) and so it was also a reunion of sorts.

Roxane had invited several friends to join her at her lovely mountain home in Dillard, Ga. I had never been to this beautiful area and it was quite a treat. This was a really fun gathering--there were four of us and the only one who knew everyone was the hostess. There was Laura, from the west coast, and Jeanne, from the North, and me from WNC. It took a lot of nerve to invite three women to come together who had never met before, including me who Rox had not laid eyes on forever. I guess she knew what she was doing as it was as if we had all known each other for years. We did not stop talking. And talking.

You are probably wondering where in the world I am going with this, but I am getting there. In all that talking, Laura mentioned she had seen a metallic silver scarf in a magazine and wondered if I could weave her one like it. I thought that would be the end of that. Nope, she texted and then emailed me a photo. She was relentless.

I was enthralled with the challenge of working with a yarn I had not ever woven. There are lots of yarns I have not used, but this is would be way out of the box for me. So I did my research and ordered what I believed to be the best choice for this project. Silk City came through with a nice weight yarn and when it arrived Karen was at the studio and I was at home. She emailed and asked "May I touch?" The most important thing any fiber enthusiast wants to do. She quickly emailed me back and told me it was lovely. And slinky.

With each step in the weaving process I kept thinking something would become difficult with this yarn, but it never did. It was so much fun and even the slinky part was not hard. The sett is 30epi and I used my favorite 120/1 silk from Habu as weft.

I took the piece into the studio today to show Karen before I shipped it off to Laura. As soon as she saw me she said "I have to wash my hands, I want to touch." And she did. We both decided I must weave another one. Soon. And I will.

My thanks to a new friend who got me out of my silk and tencel box and into something different. I'll let you know what she thinks when she gets the piece in the mail.

Oh, that's Laura and her scarf::separately. Next photo I hope they will be together.