A simple but incredibly satisfying project that lets you experience the magic of slow cloth, weaving sock blank scarves takes you on a journey from yarn to fabric. Enjoy turning colourful, hand-dyed yarn into something truly special. In this post, we’ll explore different ways to approach this idea and see what beautiful creations can be made along the way.
ABOUT SOCK BLANK YARN
Sock blank yarns may also be referred to as a “knitted blank”. However, you often see them referred to as sock blanks because they’re made from sock-weight yarn. A sock blank is a piece of fabric that is knitted from undyed yarn into either a rectangle or a tube. It is then dyed while in this knitted fabric form.
After it’s dyed, you can unravel it and weave, knit or crochet it into a different project. It may seem strange to take a piece of knitted fabric and unravel it in order to re-knit it into something else. But someone pointed out how similar it is to quilting — where we take brand new, beautifully printed cloth and cut it up into tiny pieces only to reassemble them again later. Working with a knitted blank is kind of like that — it’s transforming it from one state into another state.
Gradient sock blanks are the pivotal ingredient in these handwoven scarf projects. If you choose just regular solid coloured sock yarn, you can miss out on a lot of the optical colour mixing fun. You can find a range of sock blank gradients to be inspired by at our online shop, available in single sock blank form.
SOCK BLANK SCARF SAMPLES
All woven with our SweetGeorgia Tough Love Sock yarn as the warp, these sock blank samples are woven ranging from 12 ends per inch (epi) up to 20 ends per inch. In Felicia’s Choosing the Right Reed & Finding the Perfect Sett video, she talks further about how changing the sett can affect the feeling of your finished piece.
Sock Blank Scarf #1
Warp: SweetGeorgia Sock Blank in Andromeda
Weft: SweetGeorgia Sock Blank in Taiga
Structure: Plain weave
Going across from blue to purple in the warp with the Andromeda colourway, the Taiga weft gradient then moves from browns into olives through to teal. This sample has a very long olive section of the sock blank before getting toward the blues and turquoise at the end. The olive hues of the Taiga gradient desaturates the more vibrant colours in the Andromeda gradient, making it feel more neutral overall. It gives the finished scarf an irridescent sort of appearance. Woven at 12 ends per inch, the fabric has more of a crisp feeling… quite firm but it still has a nice drape.
Sock Blank Scarf #2
Warp: SweetGeorgia Sock Blank in Old Flame
Weft: SweetGeorgia Sock Blank in Wanderlust
Structure: Plain weave
The project uses the same techniques as scarf #1, but instead shows how it looks using different colourways. The warp goes across golden, saffron yellow through to oranges and red, over to a burgundy brown in the end. Then the Wanderlust weft goes from golden, ginger hues overlapping beautifully with the reds and then into purples. These colours were gorgeous to work with… golden and glowing, the hues were popping off the loom.
Sock Blank Scarf #3
Warp: SweetGeorgia Sock Blank in Andromeda
Weft: SweetGeorgia Sock Blank in Andromeda
Structure: 2/2 twill
This scarf fabric with the twill structure is much more slinky, drapey and soft than the previous two scarves. Besides changing this project into a 2/2 twill, it was also changed into a smooth gradient rather than having the colour jogs as the previous two scarves. To achieve this, Felicia rewound each bobbin to another bobbin in order to flip the orientation of the gradient. It creates a smooth gradient across the scarf both in length and width.
Sock Blank Scarf #4
Warp: SweetGeorgia Sock Blank in Lychee Gummy overdyed in gold
Weft: SweetGeorgia Silk Mist in Strawberry Tea
Structure: Plain weave
Felicia’s favourite project in the sock blank scarf collection, this scarf is super soft and fluffy. The weft yarn is Silk Mist — a light and airy lace-weight yarn which gives the scarf a delicate halo and makes the finished scarf much lighter. The warp sock blank yarn was knitted at a much tighter gauge, and so because of this, the finished cloth has more texture. The tighter gauge of the sock blank also results with less dye getting into all of the yarn in the blank. Because of it, the colour looks more mottled and blotchy.
Sock Blank Scarf #5
Warp: two SweetGeorgia Sock Blanks in Andromeda
Weft: SweetGeorgia Merino Silk Lace in Lupine
Structure: Plain weave
This splashy version has some of our favourite results, seeing how all of the colours mix and blend. It has a very nice drape and weight to it and is incredibly soft. It was also woven at the same sett of 12 ends per inch using the same sock blank yarn base. However, this scarf was woven using SweetGeorgia Merino Silk Lace as the weft. The lace weight yarn in the weft helps to produce a more drapey, slinky kind of fabric.
EXPLORE HANDWOVEN COLOUR AT THE SCHOOL
Part of Felicia Lo’s Handwoven Colour online course, the Sock Blank Scarves unit takes a look at hand-dyed sock blanks and how we can use them to create completely one-of-a-kind handwoven scarves. Learn about how the hand-dyed colour gradients will translate to a handwoven cloth.
If you are interested in exploring more weaving content, come and join us at the School of SweetGeorgia! There you can find a range of online weaving courses and pattern inspiration for weavers at every level. Whether you are working on a rigid heddle or multi-shaft loom, there is something for everyone. We look forward to seeing you inside the School!
