Finished the qiviut scarf!

I wove for about two hours yesterday, in half-hour intervals punctuated by lots of rest time in between. No ill effects today, so I think I can continue weaving with impunity. Hooray!

I finished weaving the first qiviut scarf early this morning, twisted the fringe in the late morning/early afternoon, and have just wet-finished it and given it a good hard press. It is beautiful! and unbelievably soft to the touch. Softer even than cashmere.

Here are two photos:

I lost some of the expression in the eyes during wet-finishing, but the musk oxen are still adorable. I’m very happy with how the scarf turned out. There is a faint wonkiness along one selvage, and I’m not sure yet how I feel about the white section (not pictured) that will go around the neck. I wove it in the same musk ox pattern, but with just the tabby weft, no qiviut. I think for the next scarf I may continue weaving with two shuttles, and replace the qiviut with a white cashmere pattern weft of about the same size. I may also change the draft so there are no musk oxen in the white section, only the swirling ripples in the background. Tomorrow I’ll decide how to proceed.

I’ve also done some more work on the beaded fringe for the sea turtle scarf – almost done with one side’s worth. I’m not wild about the color match between the dark blue beads and the dark blue turtles, but I’ve been to three bead shops already looking for a better match, and failed to find one. So this will have to do. It does look nice from the front side of the scarf, though. (Pictures in the next blog post, after I finish the first length of fringe.)

Book-wise, I’m starting to restructure the three chapters that need merging. I put in an hour this morning, and will start increasing the time over the next few days until I’m either done with my revisions or working 2-3 hours a day on it. That should enable me to finish my revisions in plenty of time.

Studied a little more in the Adobe Illustrator book, too. I’m almost done with the book, and getting ready to apply my knowledge by designing a strip-woven sea turtle shawl. I have some really cool ideas for this…just need to get them into a sketch. Next post, perhaps!

Finally, since Fritz has really been sadly underrepresented lately (it’s hard to take a good photo of a black cat!), here is a photo of His Royal Furriness, licking his chops. (I think he was anticipating cat treats!)