Weaving Tex's Memory into a Scarf: My First Custom Order

When I received my first custom order to weave a scarf incorporating horsehair, I was beyond excited. The customer had some horsehair from their beloved horse, Tex, and wanted a memento that would carry a part of him with them. This would be a very personal and unique project, and I knew I wanted to pour my heart into every step.

  

The journey began with a series of photos of Tex. He was a magnificent horse, with rich, natural colors that immediately inspired me. His mane, his coat, and even his hooves—three black, one white—set the stage for the palette I would use. I wanted to capture the essence of Tex in this scarf, weaving together both his beauty and his memory.

  

The customer gave me some of Tex's hair to work into the scarf, which made this piece even more sentimental. Initially, I was confident I could spin the horsehair with Alpaca fiber on my spinning wheel. Horsehair is long, after all, so I figured it would be a breeze. Oh, how wrong I was! When I attempted to spin it, the horsehair proved incredibly rigid, with pointy ends sticking out everywhere. It quickly became clear that spinning it into yarn wasn't going to work.

Instead, I decided to interlace the horsehair directly into the weave of the scarf. This way, Tex’s hair would become an integral part of the fabric, creating a seamless blend of texture and meaning.

  

For the main fibers, I immediately reached out to my good friend Verena, who owns Mukuti Studs. I trust her yarns completely, and I knew her Alpaca fiber would be the perfect fit—soft, luxurious, and natural. I chose Alpaca for its softness, which would balance out the rigidity of the horsehair, creating a scarf that was both sentimental and wearable.

  

I originally bought 315 grams of Alpaca and 200 grams of bamboo, thinking this would be more than enough for the project. Normally, I use about 200 grams of yarn for a scarf, so I was feeling pretty confident. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the yarn was a fingering weight instead of the DK weight I usually work with. I had to double up the threads to ensure the pattern wouldn’t look too tight, and as a result, I quickly ran out of yarn!

  

  

Cue a minor panic. I needed 13 more centimeters of fawn-colored yarn to keep the pattern balanced, but Verena had sold me the last of her stock. Fortunately, she referred me to Lyneth, who had purchased some of the fiber previously. We went through so many balls of yarn together before, almost by chance, we stumbled upon the fawn color I needed! The only hitch? It had been spun differently, so there was a slight variation in texture and color. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me. When the scarf finally came off the loom, it was so soft and luxurious—I honestly wanted to keep it for myself! It was the most beautiful thing I had ever created.

  

  

One of the photos I received of Tex showed his owner had plaited his mane into beautiful diamond shapes, and I immediately knew that this pattern would inspire the scarf’s design. My first draft had long weft floats, imagining they would create a soft and lofty feel. However, when I began weaving a sample piece, I realized the diamonds were extremely small and didn’t capture the elegance I had envisioned.

  

I went back to the drawing board and re-drafted the pattern to feature larger diamonds within diamonds. I wanted these shapes to feel interconnected, just like Tex’s mane was intricately plaited. This design felt like the perfect way to honor his memory.

  

  

When I first started this project, I thought the scarf would take at most two weeks to finish. However, the process stretched to closer to four weeks. The yarn didn’t arrive until the end of the first week, and weaving itself took longer than expected because the fibers were more delicate than what I was used to working with.

Adding the horsehair also took far more time than I anticipated. I initially thought threading it through the fringe and into the scarf would be a quick task, but it ended up taking nearly four days! Each step demanded patience and care to ensure everything came out just right.

  

To show my appreciation for the customer's patience, I decided to make a thank-you gift using some of the remaining horsehair. I chose to use a weaving structure called Name Drafting. This technique allows you to spell out special words by dividing the alphabet to match the number of shafts on the loom. The result is a truly one-of-a-kind pattern. There are countless weaving drafts out there, but the odds of finding this exact pattern again are almost impossible, which perfectly captured the specialness I wanted to convey with this memory. Look at how gorgeous this wall hanging came out!

  

  

Once the weaving was complete, the final steps were just as important to me. I meticulously threaded the horsehair through both edges of the scarf and into the fringe. This was a time-consuming process, but I wanted the horsehair to be fully integrated into the design. I then knotted and twisted the fringe to secure everything in place. 

  

  

Next, I used a needle to work the horsehair into the scarf itself, threading it carefully between the weft yarns to ensure it became a seamless part of the fabric. Once that was done, I hand-washed the entire scarf to soften and set the fibers. Of course, as luck would have it, the weather turned, and it rained—meaning the scarf took two days to dry!

  

As a final touch, I attached my handmade leather tag to the scarf, a mark of craftsmanship and care that I put into every piece I make.

  

This scarf is not just a garment, but a memory woven into fabric. It carries the essence of Tex—his colors, his mane, even his horsehair—all blended into the softest and most luxurious materials I could find. I am so proud of this creation, and it will always hold a special place in my heart as the first custom order that truly pushed my skills to new heights. And most of all, it brought a piece of Tex back to his owner, in the form of a beautiful, wearable memory.

  

by Sade Sadie