New Scarf – New Skills : The Results

It’s been a very busy week for us in the Guild. Last Thursday was the showdown of our New Scarf – New Skills competition, swiftly followed on the Saturday by our annual Four Corners workshop – more on that in the next post.

We had nine entries in the scarf competition, which is nearly half the Guild and we would have had more but for unforeseen circumstances.

All the entries were so different, and everyone produced a full sized scarf – no doll sized entries after all!

Helen S learned filet crochet, she made almost 20 samples before starting the scarf to learn the technique and decide on hook size and yarn combination. The pattern is a traditional Baltic narrow band weaving pattern that she turned into a filet pattern.

Kathy is one of our newest members and this time last year hadn’t learned how to spin yet! She entered her knitted scarf from her own hand spun yarn, having done all the fibre prep too.

Madeleine’s entry was her very first nuno felted item, she used dyed merino wool and then added colour with sari silk waste.

Claire’s woven scarf featured decorative needle felting as her new skill.

Sheila’s chenille scarf was another woven entry, this time with pattern added by using pick up sticks on a rigid heddle loom.

Nicky knitted this scarf from her own handspun that she colour blended the fibre for. She was inspired by the four seasons and tried to reflect this in the colour blending. Her new skill was learning to knit cables.

After exclaiming over everyone’s work we all awarded points to choose our winners. As it turned out second and third place were tied so a Judges Decision was required after all to separate them (thanks Brian and Elizabeth for making the difficult decision!)

Third place went to Jan for her felted scarf, her new skill was nuno felting (she’ll be an expert by the time we have our nuno felting workshop in March). Jan enjoyed making the scarf and used needle felt embellishing for the first time.

Second place was Maggie, she set out to improve her drop spindle technique, she wanted to spin laceweight yarn which she then knitted in a lace pattern. We’re all impressed as she said it was tough!

Our undisputed winner was Helen G who managed to squeeze in five techniques. Spinning, weaving, felting, hand sewing and needle felting all in one scarf! Her new skills were colour blending with a drum carder, weaving handspun yarn and felt resist. Also she says she learned the skill of working fast, after all the spinning (long draw for speed) she woven 6′ of cloth in four days! Quite some effort and a well deserved first prize!

Here are our winners modelling their creations!

Thank you to everyone who took part. We’ll let you know about next years challenge in September!