Doubleweave Colorwork Ruana With One Heddle Option: Winter 2021 Weave-Along

Description

A ruana is an outer garment that originated in the Andes. It has become a prevalent garment form throughout the Americas. It is popular among weavers because it is created by seaming two woven rectangles part way. Doubleweave is a great structure for this format as it eliminates seaming.

This short ruana-style top offers a lot of creative colorwork opportunities. We will explore a lot of the elements touched upon in Weaving 201: Colorwork, including laying out asymmetrical stripes using the Fibonacci series, weaving stripes and checks in the same garment, using value contrast when choosing colors, and embracing our mistakes.

In addition to these design principles, doubleweave offers additional colorwork opportunities. You can arrange one color on the top layer and a different color on the bottom layer. It is a great structure to use to create a wide garment by connecting one of the layers at the fold. This has an added bonus of creating a continuous plaid back that doesn’t have to be lined up as two separate pieces. The layers are separated on the loom to form the front. The long fringe in the front takes advantage of every inch of loom waste.

I’ll offer a single heddle version for folks who would rather weave two separate pieces and sew them together. We will discuss the pros and cons of each approach. Both versions are included in this 19 page pattern.

You can sign up for the weave-along here. www.yarnworkerschool.com/courses/winter-2021-doubleweave-colorwork-ruana

Winter 2021 Weave-Along

Weave a short ruana-style garment measuring 39″ x 18” across the back and two 18” flaps, with 10″ fringe in the front and 1″ fringe in the back. I’ll also offer tips for weaving two plain weave panels using a single heddle including seaming options. The pattern is free for Patrons of the School and offered on a name-your-own-price basis for non-patrons. There is no charge for the weave-along itself. Pattern sales go to support the school and future weave-alongs.

Equipment

Rigid-heddle loom with at least a 22” weaving width and the ability to support (or creatively hack) 2-heddles, two 8-dent rigid heddles, 2-6 shuttles, 2 pick-up sticks at least 24″ long.

Single-heddle version only requires a single 8-dent rigid heddle and no pick-up stick.

Yarn and Yardage

Brown Sheep Prairie Spun DK, 256 yd/100g ball; 100% U.S. wool, DK weight; 1,170 yd/lb, in Seal Brown (PSDK115), Sandstone (PSDK110), Parchment (PSDK150), Red Barn (PSDK50), and Coral Rose (PSDK45). This yarn is widely available from local yarns shops and directly from the mill. Brown Sheep is a treasure in the yarn landscape and I weave with their yarns a lot. They put together a bundle for the weave-along and you can pick your weft stripe color.

Total Yardage Required for Doubleweave Pattern: 482 yd brown (Seal Brown), 239 yd tan (Sandstone), 179 yd cream (Parchment), 182 yd red (Red Barn), 97 yd orange (Coral Rose).

If you would like slightly cooler yarn, I suggest Brown Sheep’s Cotton Fleece. I wove the single heddle version in an alternate colorway using this yarn. (Sorry, no bundle is available.) The put-up is a little different so if you are weaving the doublewide version you will want to adjust accordingly. If weaving the single-heddle version you can buy one skein of each color and an additional skein of your chosen weft color.

Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, 215 yd/3.5 oz (100g) ball; 80% Pima cotton/20% Merino wool, DK weight; 982 yd (899 m)/lb, in Bering Sea Blue (CW762), Silver Blueberry (CW505), Nymph (CW610), Vintage Linen (CW117), Weathered Barnwood (CW116) 

Single Heddle Version Total Yardage 157 yd dark blue, 202 medium blue, 191 light blue, 197 brown, 182 yd tan + 192 yds weft color of choice,

PATTERN CORRECTIONS

Pattern Updates as of 3-11-21. If you purchased the pattern after this date the pattern includes these changes. I’m regret the errors and any confusion they may cause. You can download the corrections here.

Page 2

The individual tally of the brown, cream, and orange ends are slightly off. The total number of ends is correct.

The correct ends should be: 97 brown, 72, cream, and 31, orange.

These changes marginally affect the total amount of warp yardage required: 2 yds less of brown and orange and 4 yds more of cream.

Page 3

Chart 3 Accent Area: the colors in the holes should be reversed. Chart 1 and 2 are correct, so you should already have the back heddle hole threaded correctly.

To proceed, pull through the 4 ends to the front, 3 brown and 1 orange and thread the single orange in the FRONT heddle hole. I also eliminated the arrows on the back heddle chart since that step has been completed.

Corrected chart: 

In the explanation you should be moving the yarn to the LEFT hole as indicated in the chart not “right” as written in the caption. 

Page 6

Under Thread Front Heddle: 

I state I’m working “right-to-left”, but I’m actually am working left-to-right. 

Under Placing Pick-Up Sticks, Pick-Up Stick A:

On Pick-Up A in the left-most brown stripe, pick up 9 brown ends, not 8.

Working right-to-left when facing the loom pick up one of each slotted pair using the following color order: 8 brown, 12, tan, 8 cream, 20, read, 11, orange, 9 brown, 12 tan, 8 cream. 

If for any reason you made a threading error and/or modified the pattern, pick up the yarns as they appear in the holes in Heddle 2. The total number of ends and the color order on Heddle 2 holes and Pick-Up Stick A should match.  

Page 8

Since the last pick of the colorwork on the back was woven on the bottom layer is with Heddle 1 down, if you start the flaps area sequence as written in the pattern (see page 8), the first pick of the solid stripes on the front on the bottom layer will be in the same shed.

This would be a better way to start that sequence.

1. Pick Up Stick B, shuttle 1 (lower layer)

2. Pick Up Stick A, shuttle 2 (upper layer)

3. Heddle 1 down, shuttle 1 (lower layer)

4. Heddle 2 up, shuttle 2 (upper layer)

If you end up with a doubled weft pick on the bottom layer at that transitions you can do a couple of things:

• Leave it and think of it as a pat on the shoulder from your less than perfect teacher.
• If that area happens to be a little crammed, you can cut out the extra yarn by snipping it in the middle and pulling out either end and needle weaving the tail back in.
• If that area happens to be a little open, you can needle weave in a new weft end.
• I’ll add this to the pattern download page and the announcement.

Page 14

To highlight the suggestion to reinforce the neck opening for both versions, I broke this section out under a separate heading. 

Page 17

The Indirect Warp Color Order Chart on page 17 has an error. Below is the corrected chart. The third pairing from the right should be 16 tan/16 cream not 32 tan /32 cream. Also the total number of ends tally on the far left was cut off.