Full On - Adventures In Wet Finishing Wool

Well, I got done one scarf. I'm not sure how with my 3 year old son leaving me little presents like this.....

I wanted to try a two stick header, so I advanced enough warp for fringe. Then I wove a 1 inch header in scrap yarn, changed the shed & inserted one stick. I changed the shed, inserted the second stick, them wove another inch in scrap yarn. After advancing the warp a bit, I got out the scissors. 

Here is the scarf fresh off the loom. 

It measured 12"x 82" on the loom under tension. 

I folded one stick under the other and lashed the sticks to the apron bar. 

After I adjust the tension, I'll be ready to weave scarf # 2. Now for the wet finishing. 

I have hard water so I used a bit of detergent ( use dish soap with soft water) mixed with warm water to scour the wool. 

I tried fulling the scarf by hand in hot water, but it hasn't fulled enough for my taste. 

I'm going to cross my fingers and throw it into the dryer. I realize now that my sett was a bit to close for the wool to full a lot. The next scarf will be in plain weave so we'll see if there is a big difference in the final dimensions. Stay tuned.

Happy Weaving!

I've Got The Woolies!

I'm scared of wool. Well, not so much scared as apprehensive about the finished product after fulling. I see nightmarish images of my carefully woven fabric shrinking away to nothingness. Also, as someone who suffers from Psoriasis, I've tended to work with bamboo and cotton and have steered clear of notoriously itchy wool . In my experience, bamboo and cotton fabrics can be soothing to sensitive skin. They are also easy to work with and easy care. That being said, I've always looked longingly at the beautiful skeins of wool throughout my local yarn shop and thought that I'd be brave enough to work with them one day. 

Sooooo, I bought 2 cones of Brown Sheep Nature Spun Fingering wool in White and a vibrant teal-ish blue. I wound 240 ends as flollows: (20w,40b,40w,40b,40w,40b,20w). I sleyed 2 ends per dent in a 10 dent reed for 20 epi. I hope the fabric is not too dense after fulling. Maybe I should've used a looser sett. We will see. I planned on two scarves; one tabby & one 2/2 twill, so I threaded 1,2,3,4 across.

I had 3 broken warps to tend with while winding onto the back beam. The wool threads don't slide through the heddles as easily as with cotton and a few of the warps became stuck to one another as I wound them through. To accommodate the twill I plan on doing, I began my threading on shaft 2 and ended with a shaft 3. This threading ensures that the selvedges thread is caught on each pick. This is one of my favorite new tricks. Goodbye floating selvedges!

Here is the 1st few inches of weaving. 

So far so good. Hopefully I'll have the 1st scarf off the loom tomorrow. 

Happy Weaving!