Winter is a time for wool again and you can’t beat how it weaves up. Here is a completed cloth using wool warp and wool and cashmere weft.  So light but so warm too.  A scarf in this fabric at 35cms wide ( finished) and 2.4m in length and had a weight  of only 170g. 

The warp started out at 200 threads/40cms wide in the reed. But the weaving process and our weavers finishing process will always bring it in from that width.  The finishing process is not a care process. We are used to purchasing fabrics in our clothes that need care in washing to make them last.  As a weaver this is not what we do!  The cloth rolling off the loom is like an unbaked cake. The finishing process can resemble washing but we can be alot more assertive. Every fibre benefits from different finishing processes and all involving water at some stage. Agitation is the main one we can use with Saori weaving although hard pressing and steam can be used too.  I would recommend Magic in the Water if you want to know more.  I have seen amazing cloth finishing that took that woven cloth into another dimension of beauty.

With wool, as with the previous post, I have taken to placing it in my front loader on a cotton wash setting and 95 degrees. I start the machine and sit in front of it for about 4 minutes then cancel the program. You want a lightly fulled fabric but not a felted piece of cardboard – unless you really do want that, because you can.  Our front loading washing machines are a bit hard to control and I often recommend new weavers finish the fabric by manipulating it by hand in a sink for about 4 mins, then spin in the washing machine to remove most of the moisture. But the washing machine is easier.

Finishing is a weaver’s prerogative. I spent years hard pressing silk scarves which took longer than the actual weaving but it was worth it.

“Unfinished cloth is like an unbaked cake”

Jack Lenor Larson