Dumb luck rainbow shawl

After completing the floor runner which was mostly brown, brown, brown, I needed some color. So I took the Kauni yarn I had purchased many years ago for scarves and wove a wrap with it. I wanted something warm but light weight, and this fit the bill.

Weave structure: plain weave with twisted fringe
Loom: Ashford 24" rigid heddle
Yarn: Kauni Wool 8/2 Effektgarn EQ (rainbow), for both warp and weft
EPI/PPI: 10 and 10
Finished size: 21" x 60" plus fringe (210g total weight)

Before starting, I took a gander at Ravelry to see other woven projects using this yarn. Thus, I was forewarned that the yarn is sticky plus there was a likelihood that the colorway was not consistent. I contemplated deconstructing the skein, but decided to just chance it.

The warp wasn't quite centered on the loom, but I managed to get two complete sets of the 12 colors, plus a third pass of violet. I wasn't quite so lucky on the weft, managing one pass of 11 colors before I ran out of shed. Close enough!

I used an overcast stitch to secure each end of the shawl. I can't emphasize enough just how helpful the book Finishing Touches for the Handweaver, by Virginia M. West, has been. If you weave, find yourself a copy. I'm fortunate in that my weaving guild library has one, as does the local public library.

Another handy tool is a fringe twister. After a couple of false starts, I used this gadget to twist four strands per alligator clip, then reverse twisted each pair, again using the fringe twister. It looks like I S-twisted first, then Z-twisted. No matter. I do count the number of twists to keep each piece of fringe consistent. I also use a ruler when knotting the ends, to keep them (relatively) even.

Once the fringe was trimmed (using yet MORE useful tools, a rotary cutter and self-healing cutting board), I soaked it in my washer. No, I didn't agitate, but I did add some Eucalan, as the yarn is rather coarse. I did not rinse, but I did spin the shawl. Drying under a ceiling fan was very quick.

We are currently having a heat wave, but I may just wear this baby around my air conditioned house, to gauge its warmth and just because I love it.

I still struggle with my weaving, especially the warping of the loom and keeping selvages clean, but only by weaving will I improve. There are a few floats, but otherwise a successful project.