A Fabulous Alpaca Blanket

This blanket was woven using a double weave/double wide technique.  Basically that means there are two layers woven at the same time, and in this set up, they are connected at one side which creates a "fold" and when you take the item off the loom it opens up and voila is double as wide as you wove.  I love double weave because it does feel a little like magic happens.  That said, that much alpaca all stuffed into the loom together doesn't make for happy weaving because the alpaca tends to shed and create little fuzz balls that cause problems.  I'm going to try again with different yarns--maybe some cotton in the warp and a fuzzy chennile for the weft. 

I used 6 different yarns to create the mini striping effect.  The yarn with pink is a hand-dyed alpaca that variegates from pink to brown to green.  I love the overall look!