Hemmed, Not Fringed

If James Bond was looking at Cariboo Handwoven wool blankets, he might request they be hemmed, not fringed. Picture him standing before an array of them, his famous "shaken, not stirred" martini in hand.

Other people have requested hemmed blankets and so I decided to give it a whirl and see how a hemmed wool blanket looks and works.

As with towels and most cotton blankets, I wove a strip in lighter-weight yarn at each end so that when doubled and sewn it roughly equals the thickness of the rest of the blanket and will become part of the total cloth. By hemming, I saved about three hours of fringing time per blanket and then all the careful trimming of each fringe (120 per blanket), so it was certainly worth testing.

Hemmed wool blanket (SH170)

Here are the two blankets. Both are in rich browns and greys and part of the Equestrian Collection.

SH170 | 100% wool | 180 cm x 130 cm (71" x 51") | Sold

SH171 | 100% wool | 168 cm x 127 cm (66" x 50") | Sold

Nancy Blanket #1

Nancy is one of the Froese's Icelandic Sheep Farm ewes on Fox Mountain near Williams Lake, British Columbia.  Here she is in her field last summer.

I spun one of Nancy's washed fleeces from Donna Froese ...

... and wove it as weft in a wool blanket ...

SH168 | 100% wool | 175 cm x 144 cm (69" x 56.5") 

The blanket's weave structure is undulating twill and woven with about 50% handspun Icelandic wool in a swirling back and forth pattern. Simple pattern, and yet lots to absorb in the design.

Nancy Blanket #1 is the first of more, I hope, and this one's headed to the Medieval Market in Williams Lake on November 19-20.  Might see you there!

Update: A local resident bought my first Nancy blanket at the Medieval Market and I'm thrilled it's gone to an appreciative home!

Cariboo Handwoven's New Equestrian Collection

Many of my wool blankets are woven in earthy colours: shades of browns and greys, often with cream and black. As much as I revel in weaving bright colours for cotton towels, I often yearn to return to these wool blankets to ground me. I've always loved the beautiful neutral tones and they are so very compatible with the entire equestrian world: horses, tack, a lot of rider apparel and even the footing we ride on.

Blog readers may already know about "Blankets Aren't Just For Horses!"from an earlier post (it's a favourite).

It therefore seemed logical that my latest project of Shetland wool blankets begin a new Equestrian Collection, which I've been promising myself for years. All those browns and greys with accents are so harmonious with the horse world. And so two blankets are presented below, both woven in undulating twill; this pattern creates lovely little waves of subtle energy.

The first blanket is in charcoal, near-black (not a pure black but with a little softness) and greys, with narrow cream stripes:

SH164 | 100% wool | 180 cm x 125 cm (71" x 49") | Sold

SH164 Detail

The second blanket is in warm browns:

SH165 | 100% wool | 173 cm x 125 cm (63" x 49") | Sold

SH165 Detail

And now - let's go riding!