The test shawl

 It didn't take long to dress the loom.  It was only 360 threads which went quite quickly.  First thing yesterday morning I had only to tie on the warp to the front beam.  Normally I use a long nylon cord and lash the warp bouts, which creates an easy method to evenly tension the warp.  However, my nylon cord seems to have been turned into a cat toy and I didn't want to figure out if and where I had put the rest of the cord yardage, so I just tied the bouts onto the apron rod.  It turned out to be quick and easy, so I was happy.

Weaving went quite quickly.  Last night I finished twisting the fringes.  The yarn is quite old and felt somewhat scratchy and stiff after weaving.  It almost felt like I had the sett way too close, but I was sure I hadn't made that mistake.  I ended up tossing it in the washer with a bit of laundry detergent in order to clean out the many years of grime build up and the old spinning oil. 

Out of the washer came a much softer and more drapey piece of fabric.  I lay the shawl on a dryer rack in front of the fire and had to fiddle with the placement to keep the fringes from hanging at the kitten's eye level.  This morning the shawl was dry.  It's decently soft  and still has a pleasing amount of drape. The final measurements of this shawl are 78in x 26 in, not including the fringe.  It's a nice size.   I've tied off the warp at the reed, in knots so the kitten can't undo them.  It should be quite long enough to tie on the handspun shawl warp.

The final seal of approval!  After taking the photo, I turned my back for a few minutes to upload the piccys.  When I'd finished and put the camera way, I went to then put the shawl away and found this cute sight.  Kevin must have curled up on the shawl almost as soon as I'd turned around.  I wonder if one can sell a shawl with the benefit of kitten approval?