Not towels

This is a long story of how some towels turned into first a shawl and now maybe a dresser scarf. Somewhere in there I contemplated a beach cover-up for my granddaughter, but figured she either would not wear it or would wear it once before outgrowing it.

But first, the original details:

Pattern: Dealers Choice towels, from Weaving Made Easy, by Liz Gipson
Warp: Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton, 147 "Grape", 108 'Blue Ice', and 148 'Tropic Breeze'
Weft: Cotton Clouds Aurora Earth 8/2, either 56 'Light Turk' or 47 'Copen Blue' (can't recall which I used)
EPI/PPI: 7.5 and 9
Loom: Ashford rigid heddle, 24"
Modifications: None really except in intent

Being a neophyte, I struggled with warping this pattern because the grape yarn had an odd number of threads, something I had not encountered before. I came up with a really convoluted method of warping the loom, detailed in my Ravelry entry. I'm not sure I could follow those directions a second time; instead I would just direct warp the whole thing.

The other feature that threw me off was the near-balanced weave despite the warp being much heavier than the weft. The fabric seemed too airy, but after a trip through the washer and dryer, it closed up nicely (and shrank - more on that later).

A third problem, and this is a perennial one for me, was keeping a taut tension on the warp threads. They really got wonky, and so did I as I developed weird ways to add weights to the errant threads.

Nevertheless, I persisted. However, I forgot to pay attention to where I should insert dividers in order to make two towels, so I just wove it in one piece. And then the warp became so wonky, I just stopped. Not sure what to do with the resulting fabric, I hung it in the closet.

A few weeks ago, while watching "RBG" at our local indie film theater, I noticed RBG frequently wears one of many elegant wraps. As I was freezing from the arctic AC, I decided I needed a wrap. Since my idea of dressing up is exchanging a tee shirt for a polo shirt, it needed to be more casual than RBG's. While musing on just how I would weave such a thing, it occurred to me I already had some cloth that was perfect.

I didn't know how to hemstitch when I started this project, but I managed to accomplish this after the fact. I ran the now shawl through the washer and dryer and was pleased with the resulting fabric. But alas, the amount of shrinkage left it a bit short for a wrap, at least for me, even with the long fringe. (Final size is 47" x 12" without the fringe.)

So now what should it be? A dresser scarf? A summer scarf? A longish but kind of narrow towel? Any suggestions?