Stolen time

In a moment (okay, more like forty-five minutes) of desperation, I managed to get away from all the other stuff I was supposed to be doing today for long enough to weave a two-stick header and get the goldenrod shawl off the loom:

It’s not bad, though I think the pattern looks a little like upholstery. I am also not happy about the skips, although I think I will cut out the worst of them once I wet-finish it. Tomorrow I take up fringe-twisting again. I’ll take a more “official” photo once it’s fringed and wet-finished.

I have further examined the yarn from the thrift shop and am now 100% convinced it’s cashmere. It’s as soft as cashmere, it’s an animal fiber, it has little crimp, short fibers, and it halos like cashmere. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck…

Of course, this means that I got five pounds of nice cashmere for $5.94. Or just about 1% of its actual worth. I am smug.

Tomorrow it’s back to the grind; in fact, tomorrow morning I’ll have to get up early and do the site review that I was supposed to be doing tonight. But dammit, it was worth it.

Next up is the garnet weft. I am not certain I have enough warp to do a full shawl plus fringe, so I think I will finish this one with a hem and beads. Hopefully it won’t take me another four months to find the right beads for this one.

I plan to use the same pattern that I did for the goldenrod weft – I suspect it will look quite different, and I want to see how it does in garnet red.