Valley Yarns #256 Spring Crocus Scarf

Valley Yarns Spring Crocus Scarf

What Is Being Made

The Valley Yarns Spring Crocus Scarf is a woven plaid scarf designed by Yvonne Ellsworth. This finished accessory measures 7.5 inches wide by 59 inches long, creating a cozy spring-inspired wrap. The scarf's color palette—featuring lilac, amethyst, and sage tones—draws inspiration from spring crocuses emerging after winter, making it both a functional and seasonally evocative piece.

Weave Structure and Techniques

This scarf is constructed using a twill weave structure, a fundamental weaving technique that creates diagonal lines across the fabric. Twill weaves are prized for their durability, subtle texture, and elegant appearance. The design employs plaid patterning achieved through strategic color placement in both the warp and weft yarns, creating the characteristic intersecting stripes and blocks typical of plaid designs.

The weaving is set at 12 epi (ends per inch) in the warp and 12 ppi (picks per inch) in the weft, creating a balanced, evenly-woven fabric. The warp is threaded using a specific color order that repeats 17 times, alternating between 4 ends of one color in a slot followed by 2 ends in the next slot. This threading pattern, combined with the weft color sequence, produces the spring crocus plaid effect.

Equipment Required

Weavers will need a rigid heddle loom with a minimum 10-inch weaving width to accommodate the finished scarf width of 8⅞ inches in the reed. The project requires two 8-dent heddles and three shuttles for managing the multiple yarn colors and weaving sequences efficiently.

Yarns and Materials

The Spring Crocus Scarf is woven entirely with Valley Yarns Westfield, a premium blend yarn composed of 60% Extrafine Merino Wool, 20% Silk, and 20% Yak fiber. This luxurious fiber combination provides softness, sheen, breathability, and warmth—ideal qualities for a spring accessory.

The yarn is available in three colorways for this project:

• #111 Lilac: Used in both warp and weft
• #112 Amethyst: Used in both warp and weft
• #104 Sage: Used in both warp and weft as accent color

Total yarn requirements are modest: 2 balls each in Lilac and Amethyst, plus 1 ball of Sage. The yarn is sold in 50-gram balls with 120 yards per ball. Warp length needed is 90 inches (2.5 yards), with specific yardage allocated for each color: 120 yards Lilac warp, 115 yards Amethyst warp, and 25 yards Sage warp. Weft requirements total 92 yards each of Lilac and Amethyst, plus 23 yards of Sage.

Weaving Specifications

The scarf uses a sett of 12 epi with a 2-1 threading in an 8-dent reed, meaning alternating groups of 2 and 1 thread per dent. The reed width is 8⅞ inches, which after finishing produces the final width of 7.5 inches. The warp is dressed for a total length of 90 inches, accommodating the 59-inch finished length plus loom waste and floating selvedges on either end.