Done and done!

The project is coming along! There’s a lot of white in the middle and then a nice shot of red and green towards the end!

Now that the weaving portion is done, it’s time to free it from the loom! I like to start in the middle, cutting the yarn off with plenty of inches to create fringe.

Once the project has been cut off, it needs to be unrolled off the front beam. So, the next picture shows it just hanging out on the beam…

And this picture shows what it looks like when everything has been unrolled, released and puddling in a gorgeous yardstick/table runner soup!

When you’re weaving, your vision of the project is a bit skewed. First of all, you can only see about 12-18 inches at a time. Secondly, everything is under tension. So, the moment you take it off the loom, the project relaxes and looks softer – and in this case, the pattern reads clearer. You can see the star pattern much better! That will improve even more after it goes through the washing machine!

Before it can be washed I have to do something with all the ends of the yarn – on the sides of the project and at the front and back. Every place I changed colors, I then need to hand weave back into the project.

And then, let there be fringe! I chose a thin, twisted fringe for this project. I think it looks a bit dressier and since this runner will be used for holiday events, it’ll be quite appropriate! The great news about thin, twisted fringe is that it is beautiful! The bad news is that the process is not fast! I know you can’t really get a gauge of how long each step takes, but I’ll tell you that the finishing work here took over 3 hours! (I think there were 2-3 reruns of Bones playing while I worked on this!)

The ends are good! Time for the washing machine. I used all cotton for this project so it’s going to shrink! The question is how much. I planned for 15%, which was pretty close! Thankfully! I purposely wove the project big, anticipating it would end up a particular size once it shrunk. A little wash in cold water with lots of Color Catcher, and then a little spin in dryer (still a bit damp when it comes out), and we have ourselves a Christmas table runner! WooHoo!

The finishing step…

And as a parting picture, the morning sun was loving it too! Next on the agenda, I’m feeling brown… Talk to you soon!