Just before Christmas I embarked on the largest weaving project since I have owned my loom, which is a year and 5 months now.  I usually start my weaving projects (and knitting) with some sort of inspiration,  whether it be a photo, nature, yarn sample or a snippet of a textured pattern.

The seaside throw concept was born from this photo…

A picture of the Caribbean taken a couple years ago from the Mayan Riviera.  With this picture in mind, I designed a pattern…

All the words and numbers below the design are the calculations needed to measure out yarn requirements.  With the pattern set and the yardage calculated, I needed to get some yarn.

Berocco Ultra Alpaca Fine yarn in 4 colours, I originally started with just 3, but added a 4th colour that is in between the green and the medium blue colour.  Next was winding 840 warp ends (3,368 yards) and get them on the loom.  A feat that took up approximately 20 hours over a couple weeks.

Here are the warp chains ready to go on the loom….

And here it is almost done.  Just need to tie onto the front beam and then it was off to the races.  My loom can accommodate a project up to 45″ wide, this came in at 41″, but once you start weaving, there is draw-in factor of anywhere from 1-2″, so the final weaving width was 39″ once it came off the loom.

This is the final end of warp (4 yards total), I managed to squeak out as much as I could to minimize waste.

Here it is fresh off the loom, total length is 80 inches (not including fringe) and 39 inches wide.  Perfect size for snuggling on the sofa on a cold winter’s night.

The fringe twisting took me a loooong time to do, but I like the finished look of it.  It adds 6 inches to the ends of the throw.

After weaving the blanket, there was enough warp left on the loom to make fabric to create a matching pillow (20″ x 20″).

Start to finish from design stage through to completion, this took me 2 1/2 months with work/life/holidays thrown into the mix.

Would I make another one?

Absolutely.

Deborah