With its beautiful colors washing into one another, our Watercolor Scarf almost appears rendered rather than woven. Its ever-so-subtle plaid pattern is made possible by the closely connected colors of our Cattail Silk palette. Its subtly shifting colors like Cherry Blossom and Rabbit Ear Pink or Thin Cloud Gray and Wood Mouse are perfect for a complex color study!

Watercolor Scarf | Purl Soho

The Watercolor Scarf is also possible with the trusty help of Schacht Spindle Co’s Cricket Loom, a tabletop super-achiever that allows you to explore the possibilities of weaving without sacrificing a room… or more time than you have. Set up requires a couple of hours and weaving only a handful more!

Watercolor Scarf | Purl Soho

With Cattail Silk and Cricket Loom in hand, we explored two very different color stories: Sequoia (above) and Riverbed (below), one like embers in a fire and the other like ice on a pond. Each is constructed from 5 perfectly calibrated skeins of Cattail Silk.

Watercolor Scarf | Purl Soho

If you love color and all its twists and turns, you will love weaving the Watercolor Scarf. Every new weft color brings surprises… This color and that color make that color? Like a good book, you won’t want to stop until you find out what happens in the end!

Watercolor Scarf | Purl Soho

And in the end, you’ll have a truly special swath of fabric, that also happens to function as a gorgeous scarf… that you made!

Watercolor Scarf | Purl Soho

Share your progress and connect with the community by tagging your pics with #PurlSoho, #PurlSohoBusyHands, #PurlSohoWatercolorScarf, and #PurlSohoCattailSilk. We can’t wait to see what you make!

Designed by Purl Soho designer, Jake Canton. Click here to see even more of Jake’s designs!

Materials

Watercolor Scarf | Purl Soho

To weave your very own Watercolor Scarf, you will need 5 skeins of Purl Soho’s Cattail Silk, 100% silk.

You will also need…

We’ve chosen a warm and a cool palette from the current offerings of Cattail Silk…

Sequoia (shown above)
  • Yarn A: 1 skein of Rabbit Ear Pink
  • Yarn B: 1 skein of Cherry Blossom
  • Yarn C: 1 skein of Cork Tree
  • Yarn D: 1 skein of Cinnamon Bark
  • Yarn E: 1 skein of Fallen Leaves
Riverbed

Watercolor Scarf | Purl Soho

  • Yarn A: 1 skein of in Flower Field Gray
  • Yarn B: 1 skein of in Blue Bamboo
  • Yarn C: 1 skein of in Thin Cloud Gray
  • Yarn D: 1 skein of Wood Mouse
  • Yarn E: 1 skein of Porcelain White

Structure

Balanced Plain Weave

Warp

Warp Length: 97 inches

Warp Ends: 156 ends

Width in Reed: 13 inches

Ends Per Inch (E.P.I.): 14 E.P.I.

Picks Per Inch (P.P.I.): 14 P.P.I.

Size

  • Finished Dimensions, Unblocked: 11 3/4 inches wide x 77 inches long
  • Finished Dimensions, Blocked: 11 inches wide x 73 inches long

Note

When you block your finished scarf, expect about 7% shrinkage.

Pattern

Warp the Loom

Set up the warping peg 97 inches from the back of the loom. Note that, at this point, the back of the loom is clamped to the far edge of the table and so is the side farther away from the warping peg.

With a 12-dent reed in place and using Yarn A, begin by pulling the first loop of yarn through the 6th slat from the right end of the reed.

Working from right to left, pull Yarn A through an additional 14 slats. You will have threaded a total of 15 slats, giving you 30 warp ends.

Cut Yarn A and tie it to the back apron rod.

With Yarn B, tie the yarn to the back apron bar and pull Yarn B through the next 3 slats, giving you 6 warp ends.

Cut Yarn B and tie it to the back apron rod.

With Yarn C, tie the yarn to the back apron bar and pull Yarn C through the next 30 slats, giving you 60 warp ends.

Cut Yarn C and tie it to the back apron rod.

With Yarn D, tie the yarn to the back apron bar and pull Yarn D through the next 10 slats, giving you 20 warp ends.

Cut Yarn D and tie it to the back apron rod.

With Yarn E, tie the yarn to the back apron bar and pull Yarn E through the next 20 slats, giving you 40 warp ends.

Cut Yarn E and tie it to the back apron rod. You should now have 78 slats threaded and a total of 156 warp ends.

Finish the warp according to the Cricket Loom instructions, transferring one strand from each slot to the hole to the right of it.

Tie the warp onto the front apron bar.

Weave

Wind one shuttle full with Yarn A and the other shuttle with several yards of Yarn B.

With scrap yarn or Yarn A held doubled, weave a couple of inches until the warp threads are evenly spread out. Then, using a bulky, squishy yarn or roving (or even paper towels!), weave 3 rows. This helps absorb any slight uneven tension in the warp.

Beginning with the reed in the up position, pass the shuttle with Yarn A through the shed from left to right, leaving a 36-inch tail (which you will use at the end for finishing).

Weave an additional 9 rows with Yarn A, making sure you beat each row with enough force to get the weft threads very tightly packed to create a secure selvedge edge. The 10 rows of Yarn A should measure about 3/8 of an inch.

Then, continuing with Yarn A, weave for 8 inches, now just lightly beating the weft down for a balanced plain weave.

With Yarn B, weave for 1 inch.

If you only have 2 shuttles, empty them both and now fill one with Yarn C and the other with Yard D.

With Yarn C, weave for 35 inches.

With Yarn D, weave for 18 inches.

Empty a shuttle and with fill Yarn E.

With Yarn E, weave for 15 inches.

Continuing with Yarn E, weave 10 more rows of selvedge, again beating each row quite firmly.

Leave a 36-inch tail for finishing.

Finish

NOTE: For a complete how-to on this step, visit our Finishing with Hemstitch Tutorial.

Making sure your warp is not under tension, make the Hemstitch around groups of 4 warp ends across the width of the scarf.

Cut the fringe 1/2 inch from the end of the weaving.

Weave in the hemstitch tails and gently hand wash your finished scarf in cold water, laying it flat to dry.

Watercolor Scarf | Purl Soho

Watercolor Scarf | Purl Soho