A Winter Sunset Inspiration for a Felted Scarf

On a recent walk with our dog around sunset, the sky was unremarkable and muted; but then, slivers of gold appeared in the west, and minute-by-minute these bright tones intensified til the whole sky was glowing molten amber, with streaks of pale turquoise and coral.  It was a spectacular fiery sunset that contrasted the cold evening air, and I noted the colors so I could evoke the experience in my studio.

I carded batts (on my Louet drum carder) of merino, alpaca, cashmere, silk, organic Polwarth, dyed silk noils, bamboo; and added some remnant sari silk threads and more and more silk into the layers.  In carding the fibers, I placed them carefully to create a color gradient from warm coral and gold tones to soft blue, with touches of white and turquoise.  In laying out the fibers, I preserved the color gradient.

The resulting scarf is very light (2 1/4 ounces) and 64″ x 6″ inches.  It’s almost a cobweb scarf — delicate but with lots of texture, from the deliberate layering of different tones and textures.  There’s a lot of satisfaction in connecting deeply with the source of inspiration, and I hope this scarf sparks some of the awe of walking in the atmosphere of a magnificent winter sunset.

Yak, Silk, Merino Scarf

I wanted to create a scarf that would be soft and warm, and contrast natural tones with warm reds and gold tones, so I started by gathering a medley of fibers…

I layered the fibers and fabrics to provide a lot of texture and interest… 

 

And worked this into “pre-felt” — yardage that is partially felted so it can be worked with and cut up as needed; and that is intended to be used for surface embellishment — but is not completely felted or “fulled” into finished form.  This partial felting keeps the fibers open enough to allow them to easily embed into the intended project.

The layout, dry, before wetting/felting/fulling.  You can see the three fluffy layers (yak, merino) as well as the shiny silk fabric strips and the strips I’ve cut from the pre-felt yardage.  I’ve added some fiber “dots.”  Fabricating the dots is so meditative…

The finished scarf, and a detail:

I’m pleased with how very soft this scarf is.  The yak fiber is short, which means that layout takes longer because I’m working with small tufts of fiber instead of longer-length fiber tufts; but this extra time is worth it, because the yak creates such a soft and finely-textured “hand” and luxurious drape — a lot of warmth with very little weight.   The scarf is 6″ x 60″ and weighs just two and three-eighths ounces!