FO once, FO twice...

FO time. It has been a good week. I finished weaving the twill sampler. The first cloth woven (by me) on my new-to-me loom; my first twill and my first 4-shaft project. I am more than happy with the way it finished up. I soaked it in hot water in the tub with a bit of Eucalan and swished it back and forth gently. It fulled beautifully. I'm amazed how the web closed up in this process. The Harrisville New England Shetland has produced a beautiful wool cloth that is light as a feather and comfortable.

There are some imperfections in the weaving--it is a learning experience after all. Some of my beating was a little uneven and some of the slevedges have runners at the edge. This is because some of the patterns don't grab the outermost thread and it is left hanging in those patterns. When I first observed this, the whole topic of 'floating selvedges' suddenly made a lot of sense. A floating selvedge is an extra thread that is warped along side the actual warp but is not threaded into a heddle and therefore floats round about the middle of the shed. If a shuttle is thrown over this thread on one side of the warp and under the thread on the other side, then these edge threads are guaranteed to be caught in the web every time. For this sampler, seeing how it's all so new to me, I simply caught the outer most thread every so often to secure it to the cloth.

I am also pleased with the way the colors worked together...

There's a glimpse of the soaps from last week in this pic:

Exciting, exciting!

I also managed to finish Quercus Alba this weekend. Had a few hours on the train to CT back and forth on Saturday and lo, it's completed. I'm well pleased with this as well. Another very enjoyable knit. At the moment I feel lost because I haven't a subway knitting project on the needles. What to do? What to do? Will have to find a new pattern asap, that's what!