At the end of 2020, I made some shawls for my sister, niece and nephew. Of course, I could not leave out my brother-in-law, so I asked him if he wanted a shawl as well. He was enthusiastic about this idea and we quickly decided on a shawl with blue shades and round shapes. Not unlike the shawl I made for his son.

Close-up of turned taquete circles in dark blue on light blue background Close-up of turned taquete circles in light blue on dark blue background
Circles in light and dark blue

Searching for circles

The warp and weft threads of a woven fabric cross each other in a perpendicular fashion. Still, the illusion of round shapes can be achieved in various ways with the right use of colors and weaving structures. In the shawl I made for my nephew, I obtained circles through shadow weave. For this new project, I wanted to change this up a bit.

Close-up of the circle pattern at an angle Close-up of the circle pattern at an angle Close-up of the circle pattern at an angle
Turned taquete circles up close

My recent discovery of turned taquete led me to the Circles and Checks Towels designed by Susan Poague for the Handwoven magazine of May/June 2019. So, circles are also a possibility in turned taquete. I used this design as my starting point and altered it a bit. In my design, the circles are of two different sizes. Just as is the case for my nephew’s shawl.

Beautiful blue

This winter season, I made quite some woven projects in blow yarn. This shawl was no exception. I alternated marine and denim shades of blue in the warp and combined this with a black weft. This choice of colors is highly inspired by my nephew’s shawl in marine and denim. The black weft makes sure that the shawls are matching, yet are not each others copies. The fun thing about this turned taquete design is that the two sides compliment each other: one side shows light circles on a dark background and on the other side this is exactly the opposite.

Overview picture of the father's shawl Overview picture of the son's shawl
Like son, like father

After my initial struggles of getting the turned taquete sett right, I was happy to get it right for this project. Luckily, the circles came out as circles instead of ovals.

The family of shawls was complete just in time. Soon after the shawl was finished, the Dutch weather became particular cold and snowy. A perfect opportunity to go outside wrapped in handwoven warmth.