A New Sport: Weaving

I taught myself a new sport this weekend: weaving on a Hettle Loom. It was great fun. I did some serious stash diving into my yarn collection and came up with some wonderfully rich-colored yarn. It took most of an afternoon to figure out how to set up the warp as perfectly as possible. Then came wefting. I can actually see my learning curve in progress as I look at the beginning of the piece and compare it to the end of the piece.

Here are some photos:

In progress:






The fabric closeup:



And the final shawl:




Kewl, huh? The shawl is soft as buttah and the colors are wonderful--not quite as neon as shown here. The flash on the camera really amped up the color. Oh, and the shawl is really a perfect rectangle. One side is just folded under a bit more in this photo.

Here's a photo taken without the flash. I think the colors are more true.



The yarns I used are:
Warp: Wendy and Peter Velvet Touch
100% nylon
Weft: Classic Elite Illusion
83% cotton, 14% rayon, 3% polyester

I have enough yarn left for a second shawl, so perhaps I'll get going on that today. It's so much fun to teach one's self something new!