Now that winter is over, it is time to stash away the thick winter yarns and bring out yarns suitable for spring. The start of spring is the perfect time to work on some light and airy shawls. My first spring project this year is a shawl made for my mother. For her birthday, I made an oversized shawl in black, cream and red. The perfect accessory for this time of the year.

Advancing circles

My mother is a big fan of the shawls I made in advancing twill sequences. To avoid becoming repetitive, I decided to give this approach a twist. It is always fun to weave circles, so why not weave advancing circles? This is exactly what I did.

I made a simple pattern of a circle covering five shafts and gradually shifted it over all 8 shafts of my loom. The advancing circles pattern was born. I really like the effect of circles appearing and disappearing. The pattern is in turned taquete, which is definitely one of my favorite weaving techniques.

Wrapped in silk

The next step was to choose a yarn. We decided on a blend of cotton and silk. The yarn is solid-colored but there is still a slightly variegated effect. The cotton and silk do not take up the dye in the same way. Hence, the cotton and silk fibers are slightly different in color. This gives the yarn a very lively and beautiful look. My mother opted for black and cream in the warp and bright red in the weft. I made the shawl nice and wide, so that it can serve as a wrap on those days that are on the chilly side.

The yarn was new to me and it was a pleasure to work with. I really like weaving turned taquete. I enjoy the rhythm of threading the heddles, going back and forth between the main pattern and its parallel repeat. I also enjoy the weaving itself a lot. It requires only one shuttle which makes for comfortable weaving. Moreover, it is fun to see the warp and weft colors interacting as I go. In this case, the warp was only black and cream. Not very exciting. Adding the red weft gave the warp threads a completely different appearance.

By now, the shawl has already made its way to my mother. A good thing, given that the weather in The Netherlands has been quite chilly. I love working with wintery yarns, but I am happy the time has come to switch to some lighter ones.