Design process - step 6 - finishing

Today I am grateful for my father.  He was always patient and kind, even when I probably didn't deserve it.  He also had a sly and dry sense of humor.  He liked to play jokes on people, but never anything malicious.  We didn't live close to my parents after we got married and had children, so it was a special time when the grandkids got to visit.  At that time my parents lived out in the country on about 20 acres.  Once when we were visiting my Dad said that he was going to check on the gopher traps.  Would my boys like to go with him?  They were 2 and 4 at the time.  I said "Sure."  It would be a great outdoor adventure for the boys and their grandfather.  Half an hour later my oldest son came back in the house.  He had been carefully coached on how to proceed.  So instead of running in with a "Look what I found!" He walked in carefully with his hands behind his back until he was right in front of me.  "Look"  he said as he held out a dead gopher by the tail in front of my face.  Of course I screamed - long and loud enough to delight all three of the conspirators.  I was surprised and horrified, both by the gopher and by the fact that my sweet little boy was holding it with a sneaky smile on his face.  After the gopher was properly disposed of, the children's hands were thoroughly disinfected.  (I must admit that one gopher was harmed in the creating of this joke, but supposedly he had it coming for digging up the lawn.)

Now on the the last step in the process - finishing.  After all the weaving is finished I unroll everything and take it off the loom.  I cut the dummy warp instead of untying all those knots. Eventually I will have to put on another dummy warp.  This is how the shawl looks right off the loom.

Next it is time to tie the fringe.  I divide the warp ends in groups of 4 to make the fringe.  I also add in one weft yarn from each bobbin to each group of 4.  I pull them through the edge of the shawl with a crochet hook, then tie an overhand knot in all 6 yarns.

It is rather tedious, but I put on some music and go as fast as I can.

This picture show the difference between the tied end and the untied end.  I really like adding the weft yarns into the fringe because it beefs up the fringe and connects the weft yarns to the warp yarns in a visible way.  It also makes each shawl look very different from the others on the same warp.

The last thing to do is wash the shawl.  The first wash a shawl has is for function as well a cleaning.  I soak the shawl in hot water and mild detergent for about an hour.  Then I gently squeeze it all over to wash and full.  The mild fulling is important.  I weave my shawls very loosely.  The fulling gets the yarns to grab hold of each other and become a fabric rather than just some yarns crossed over each other,  but because of the loose weaving the drape is still nice.  Then I rinse the shawl in cold water 3 times and put it on the spin cycle in my washing machine.  The shawl is then dried flat on my drying rack.  It usually takes 12 - 24 hours to dry.  The fringe is then trimmed straight and pictures are taken.

The final step is to put the shawl up on my etsy store.  Go to touchingfibers.etsy.com to see all the shawls available right now.