I wanted to make a nice scarf for Kevin for Christmas that was black, but not solid, jet black. Plus, I wanted it to have nice drape and be warm without being oppressive. I had some beautiful Habu XS-32 20/18 bamboo in my stash that I decided would be the perfect weft, providing a soft surface as well as the drape I was looking for. But what to use for the warp. Having recently relocated to Massachusetts, I set out to visit A Loom With A View just down the road in Newburyport. Betsy has a nice selection of both weaving and knitting yarns, and I immediately latched onto some Sulka 60% merino/20% alpaca/20% silk and some Blue Sky Alpacas baby alpaca. While the Blue Sky was a standard charcoal color, the Sulka was black with some subtle but vibrant in the right light bits of blue.  Additionally, the Sulka was bulky and the Blue Sky was sport weight, which would give me some textural contrast in the warp. Sold.  

 
So I had my yarn, now the question was what to do about a pattern. I decided that a twill would be a nice way to show off the sheen of the bamboo. I threaded my Baby Wolf straight draw, 6 ends per inch, and started out weaving a 1/3 twill. After about two inches I didn't like what I was seeing, so I unwove the two inches and went back to the drawing board. Call me crazy, but Habu Bamboo isn't a cheap purchase, and I wanted to use every inch I could. I decided to try out a 2/2 twill, and voila!  Here's a rundown of the project. 
 
Sett: 6 ends per inch
Threading: Straight draw (as if for plain weave). You'll need four shafts for this project.
Width in reed: 16"
Total warp length: 101"
Total ends: 96
Total warp yards: 270
Total weft yards: 298
Finished dimensions: 12" x 60" plus a 4" fringe
 
My friend Stephanie loves twill weaves. Not me. I have avoided them for the most part because everyone always talks about needing a floating selvedge, and I have no patience for extra steps. I discovered, however, that for a 2/2 twill threaded 1-2-3-4, if I added a 2 at the beginning and a 3 at the end, so 2-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-...1-2-3-4-3, the problem was eliminated altogether. So technically, my width in reed is 16 1/3" and my total ends are 98.
 
Using the Sulka (S) and the Blue Sky Alpacas (B), my threading color sequence was 13(B)-12(S)-12(B)-24(S)-12(B)-12(S)-13(B). My entire weft was the Habu bamboo, and the goal was to weave 76", though I ended up being able to weave a few extra inches. After weaving, I cut the project from the loom and tied overhand knots in groups of six. I then gently handwashed it, rolled it in a towel to absorb some of the excess moisture, and hung the scarf to dry. The final steps were trimming the fringe to 4" and steam pressing the scarf using a tea towel to separate material from iron. The drape is gorgeous.  It's a fairly heavy scarf, but more in a well built way than a cumbersome way.  I'll try and post of a photo of my sweetheart wearing the final project once he's opened his gift. I have temporarily banned him from reading the site until then.