Last winter, I discovered I could make wonderfully light yet warm shawls with blow yarn. I switched to lighter yarns when spring came around. I picked up the blow yarn again now that autumn is here. Differently from last year, I now have an 8-shaft loom and experience with advancing twill and echo effects. In my new project with blow yarn, I made good use of these new tricks.

There is no denying that autumn is here, the days are getting shorter and colder. This changing season motivated me to weave a blanket using the full width of my loom.

When I got my first loom, I had been crocheting for a couple of years already. In fact, I got inspired to give weaving a try on a yarn fair I attended to serve my crochet yarn needs. I tried out several of my favorite crochet yarns on my rigid heddle loom with different rates of success. This taught me that I could weave wonderful kitchen towels with unmercerized crochet cotton. My habit of weaving crochet cotton towels continued after I obtained my floor loom.

When experimenting with new yarn, you have no guarantee that the end-result will meet your expectations. Sometimes you need a little outside encouragement to try something you doubt will work, only to find out that the end-result is far better than you could ever expect.

Each project has a different origins story. Some start with a concept, some start with a technique. These two shawls started with three balls of cotton/bamboo yarn in beautifully muted colors.