It makes a nice change to make something which I know from the outset is just for me. I bought some printed silk chiffon in November with the intention of making a nuno skirt. I attend lots of wool or wool related events and never seem to be wearing any, I felt left out! A nuno skirt which I would then line would be perfect.  I gathered together all the colours I thought would work with the material and began pondering.

I’ve had sufficient time since November to ponder so I should have known something just didn’t feel right. I loved the fabric but just couldn’t see in my head eactly how I would felt it. Posing in front of the mirror, I wrapped the fabric around me and imagined the finished skirt. Nope, I just wasn’t feeling it

Even now, I’m not sure if I could tell you what wasn’t right but I changed tack, cut the fabric in half and  decided to make a scarf. Some of you may know that I can’t wear wool, especially round the neck but I adore scarves and want to wear ones I have made.  The enjoyment of the laying out process is only marred by the knowledge that I can’t keep it in this fluffy cloud state forever.

Initially I put wool nepps down on the fabric to create even more texture when felted. Then I’ve laid out a mix of turquoise blue Merino along the edge with a singles hand spun yarn (by yours truly) in many shades of blue and topped it all off with red nepps. You can see some of the fibres reaching fingers across to the left. The procedure was repeated on the other side although with a narrower border which was done to hide the raw edge of the fabric and to make the scarf truly double sided (another little hang up of mine)

Do you like it?  The lime green doesn’t look great with it but it happened to be what I was wearing plus it shows the blues clearly. In the picture below I’ve tried to show you some of the texture created through nuno felting.

I’m so pleased I added the red nepps as it would have been a little dull without them. Here’s another shot of the border.

It’s a little easier to see the hand spun yarn in this picture and you can’t have too much of a good thing so here it is again.

The reason I can wear this scarf is that the wool is confined to the ends where it won’t come into contact with the sensitive skin on my neck and upper body. I added a minute amount along the long edge to cover the raw fibres and give me a rolled edge but it’s so tiny I don’t have to worry plus I can always hide it in the folds of the scarf to keep it away from my skin. It’s barely been unworn since I completed it. Happy?  Yep! plus I still have a second piece of fabric which can be made into a scarf for someone else.

Back to white silk chiffon for the base again. I haven’t shown you the white ones in the laying out stages as white goes translucent when wet and is therefore difficult to photograph. I laid circles of brown BFL blended with tussah silk down on the chiffon first, then added bits of yarn, lace and pebbles to create texture. Over that I laid a fine layer of white BFL and throwsters silk waste.

Again, I stopped part way and stitched into each of the dark circles and removed a section of  fabric from each to reveal the brown BFL beneath.

You can quite clearly see the texture created by the lace, yarn and pebbles. The colour of the pebbles shows through quite well too.

I was careful choosing the pebbles to ensure they were smooth so that they wouldn’t pierce the fabric. The yarn was a boucle yarn which has really added to the texture in the finished piece.

Lots more colour in this scarf. I began by hand dyeing silk chiffon in delicate pinks which made a great base to begin from. I laid down small amounts of coloured silk fibres and thencovered them with peach and pink fibres.

This was followed by a layer of carded pink, white, peach and apricot fibres topped
with dyed tussah silk and throwsters silk.

I left one edge free of fibres as I’d left the selvage on. After flipping it over I laid a few
tiny circles of fibres on the top side.

I stopped part way through felting and added some stitching to each of the coloured circles.
Below you can see what the scarf looked like at the end of felting.

The coloured circles are where I put thew stitching, I then cut sections away to reveal the
silk fibres and peach and pink wool beneath.

Each large circle had three small circles of wool nearby and I cut the centres out of
each creating holes in the scarf.

You can see the reverse with silk fibres above and the frilled silk chiffon where I left it free of fibre.
I couldn’t stop there though, I just had to bead the ends.

I’ve made a few nuno scarves recently and can finally show you a few photos. This first one is one silk chiffon and is quite plain but feels quite feminine.

One each end I used strips of silk to form round shapes like ruffled flowers and then I’ve beaded the centre of each with pearl seed beads.

On the fibres side I’ve added lots of throwsters silk waste to give it that great sheen. I’m liking this one!