Floral shawl finished, starting a production run of scarves for Xmas presents

Finished weaving my floral shawl!  And it is GORGEOUS!!  The silk is luminescent, the color variations add depth, and it is soooo soft to the touch!

There are a few imperfections in the weaving – there is one spot where I mistakenly wove three leaves in a row instead of two, a loose warp thread here and there, and so on – but on balance it is a beautiful piece and I am very proud of it.  I finished twisting the fringe this morning and immediately washed it, ironed it dry, and wore it into work, where everyone oohed and aahed over it.

I will post photos later today.

Meanwhile, I have determined my next weaving project.  Technically I don’t have to give anyone Xmas gifts (I sent my chocolates out already), but since we will all be exchanging Xmas gifts, I’d rather have something to put under the tree.  So I’m going to churn out a set of five scarves to give my mom, her husband, my dad, his wife, and my brother.  (I already wove a scarf for my brother’s wife.)

I’m going to use a 12/2 silk warp and a similarly sized weft, so it should weave up very quickly – my beige shawls were comparable and it took only a few hours to weave each one.  By using the same warp for all five scarves, I’m pretty sure I can churn out all the scarves I need in a week.

To make this somewhat less boring, I’m going to weave a different pattern in each piece – I’ll probably thread it as a simple straight twill and then make changes in the tie-up and treadling to produce VERY different-looking patterns.  (Just looking at my book of eight-shaft weaving patterns has convinced me there are a near-infinite number of straight-twill combinations.)  So every scarf should look different.  It’ll be a great chance for me to play around with variations on a threading.  I may even design one or two of my own…!

On impulse, yesterday I bought a pound of brushed kid mohair at 2000 yards per pound, so I’m thinking I will probably make three scarves out of silk and kid mohair, and two out of silk and cashmere.  I’m going to dye the mohair and cashmere in five different colors, probably tonight.  I don’t know how well the woven patterns will come out given the fuzz from the brushed mohair, but I figure there’s only one way to find out!