Tencel, part 2

Time for the V. Maybe I'm just out of practice, but I thought I had problems I don't usually have.

Also, my usual finishing manipulation was nearly impossible because of the tight sett. (The fold often needs slight adjustments to some of the ends.) So, for short, the "dry finishing" took a lot longer than I am used to. And I had no idea whether I could clip the woven-in ends or not. (In the end I did not)

Finally, it was done, and all fringes were twisted.

Before wet finishing, two things were very noticeable: it was extremely sturdy, also very heavy.
Into the washing machine it went, and came out feeling much the same. No shrinkage, no blooming (but I knew that). Also no drape...

Pressing did a lot. Now, it is still heavy (of course), but it does not feel "sturdy". It also does not drape as I had expected (but it is plain weave, which does not exactly help - but from all the "rave reviews" I had expected more.) I may have to try mangling it, but that is for another day.

I wonder how the knots in the fringes will hold up? They look half-chewed-up just with the first washing. How does the rest of the world treat tencel fringes?

- And, I may have invented a new way of wearing a small V:

So what have I learned?
- Tencel is not a forgiving yarn, so it is probably not a good choice for V-shawls.
- Tencel is heavy, which means I will want much finer, if I'm going to weave something "serious".
Which adds up to: I'm not a convert (yet). (But I have a cone of white 30/2...)

For Charlotte: this yarn was given to me by Laura Fry - I asked for it, just because I haven't seen any Scandinavian place offering it fot sale. But it is supposed to be produced in both the UK and in Austria...

A maiden voyage: tencel, part 1

The three cones of tencel 8/2 had been sitting on a shelf for maybe 2 years.
Now I wanted to make a smallish V-shawl, and I thought maybe it was time to try this yarn. There has been lots of talk on the 'net, and maybe 2 years is a suitable ageing time - .

No way I was going to warp with just one end, but, at the same time - to make three spools of just a couple of meters each - so I just made one extra spool of each. And it linted... I noted also that the yarn had a low twist.

So I wound a warp of about 180 cm. The recommended sett was 20 ends per inch, which converts nicely to 8 ends per cm. Pre-sleyed, ready to "beam":

Beam, in quotes, because on my extra long loom a warp shorter than 2 1/2 metre will not reach the beam. There are ways to fix that, of course:

Threading a warp that is not stable takes some extra care, but is not really a problem. Threaded, sleyed and tied on - a few picks of each colour in the top layer, to determine which to use as weft:

Weaving the "arms" was quick and easy - but the warp felt somewhat dense. OTOH, tencel/rayon is slippery, so it probably would be OK. And, after all, the whole piece was to be seen as a sample, anyway. Interestingly, it linted less when weaving.