Warped, woven, washed – but not without a bit of struggle.

It was a bit of a fight to bring my first real weaving project into existence. I wound the warp onto the back beam crookedly and had to rewind it – with all the ends still in the heddles. I then finished warping – before realizing I had the wrong reed on the loom. I stubbornly insisted on using a fine silk weft that almost took over the warp. I made mistakes. I persevered. And here it is.

The warp for this scarf is commercial merino and my handspun polwarth, both my hand-dyed, plus a skein of Felicia’s 50/50 merino silk singles. The weft is 12/2 silk, also hand-dyed by me.

I put it in the washing machine to full it – to clean and open the fibres – for only a few minutes. It wasn’t until I dried it and tried it on that I realized it had shrunk 10″ in length. Yet it’s still long enough to wear and I’m so much happier with the plumpness and softness of the fulled fabric. But I believe I will consult an expert to help me figure out if the scarf is, in fact, over-fulled so I don’t make the same mistake next time.