Mindless results: 2 scarves finished

The first two scarves in the "mindless weaving" run have been fringed, wet-finished, and pressed. Here are close-up scans of the scarves, showing the basket-weave selvedge on the right edge of the picture.



Both scarves use undyed Treenway 30/2 spun silk in the warp, sett at 40 epi. I sleyed the warp 4 ends per dent in a 10-dent reed, but almost wish I'd used a 20-dent reed because there are still some reed marks after finishing. The "teeth" of the 10-dent reed are just enough fatter that they're more likely to leave reed marks than the skinny teeth of the 20-dent reed. Oh well. Next time!

The weft for the darker scarf is Treenway 30/2 silk/yak and for the lighter scarf is Treenway 30/2 silk/camel. Both have a lovely butter-soft hand after finishing.

I tried to beat at about 34 picks per inch for the designs that are based on 4-end twill, and at about 40 ppi for the designs that are based on 5-end satin. I figured that the slightly closer beat would make up for the difference in structure.

I'm very pleased with the results so far. Now all I have to do is make the plied fringes on the remaining scarves in the run, which is time-consuming and hard on the hands. Sometimes it seems as if I'm spending as much time plying fringe as I did weaving! I've discovered a battery powered tool to help with the task - a product from Conair called Quick Braid (model QB4). It's a real hand-saver, if you have lots of fringes to ply and any hint of arthritis in the hands. I still have to start the plying by hand to get the twist to start right up at the fell of the cloth, but the tool does the rest of the twisting for me. An overhand knot at the end, and I'm done.

p.s. Amazon carries the Quick Braid, or you can just google "Conair Quick Braid" and see what comes up. I bought mine on eBay...