Sunday, February 02, 2014

First Shawl on the Triangle Loom Finished



 My first Triangle Shawl is complete!
Yarn : Lion Brand Homespun / Color : Lagoon

Here's a close-up of the rolled collar.  It almost wants to do this by itself.

It didn't really take long to finish the common weave cloth part of the shawl. The beauty of continuous line weaving is that when you pull the yarn through, you are adding weft to each side as well as a warp string.  Although I wasn't keeping careful track of my hours, I'd say it took about 12 hours to weave.  Then I let it sit on the loom for a week or so--It looked so nice!  I was afraid that it would become all mis-shapen once I took it off the loom.   Not to worry!

When I finally steeled the courage to go the next step, and pop it off the loom, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it fluffed up nicely once released from the tension of the pins.  I used a homespun acrylic yarn with yummy colors and very soft touch.   It makes a really nice fabric.


Here I am sitting on the couch on a frigidly cold day in January to work on the finishing tasks.  I am just so pleased and amazed that this first shawl came out so well!  So soft--and it didn't fall apart when I pulled it off the loom!

Detail of the crocheted edge.

After popping it off the loom, I finished the edges with a crochet hook, pulling one loop into the next--all the way around.  Although the cloth firmed up nicely, the loops that were hanging on the nails were a bit stretched and distorted.  Then I crocheted a simple border edge (with the same yarn) consisting of 3 double crochets + 2 chains repeated around the outside edges of the triangle.   This gave it a nice lacy/shell effect.


This is how it looked after I finished with the edge-treatment, but before I washed and dried it to "full" it.   It looks ok--maybe a little frumpled, but washing it really pulled things back into shape (as you can see up at the top).  It's a necessary step in the process.


Detail of the woven fabric.  
The one n the left is before fulling (straight off the loom); the right has been fulled (washed and dried).  You can tell it's "fluffier."

 Soon I'll be ready to give it to the recipient--and start a new one!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful!!!

The Idaho Beauty said...

That looks so perfect for cold old Wisconsin. I love that crocheted edge you put on it. Most interesting the difference between right off the loom and washed. Doesn't look "home-made" at all but very professional. You must be pleased at this first success!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful----what talent!!!
--Joanne Drake

Idaho Beauty said...

Can't wait to see what the next shawl looks like! And can't wait to see my journal too, of course. Don't rush though. I did finally resolve the closure on your padfolio and I have it propped up by the computer to enjoy it while I can.

Anonymous said...

Your shawl is beautiful. What size is the loom you used? The shawl turned out to be a perfect size.
--dwannalou

Michele Matucheski said...

My loom is not quite 7 feet long-- That wouldn't fit in my studio. Maybe 4 inches short of 7 feet. Thanks for visiting my corner of the web!

Diane said...

I am so impressed. That is beautiful. You did such a great job and I love the yarn too. You should be quite proud of yourself - lovely

Phillys said...

I am interested in attempting weaving on a triangular loom, and I found your site because I would like to use acrylic to do so. I make prayer shawls as part of a ministry at my church. We never know for whom we are making the shawls. Many go to nursing homes or other situations where they might not be laundered with a lot of care. We try to avoid fringe that might tangle or get caught in a wheelchair. For this reason, our shawls have to be something that is easily washable without fringe. Your shawl would be perfect!

My crocheted shawls usually finish out at about 72” across and 35” from the top middle to the point. Since my husband will be building my loom, what size would you recommend? Does the shawl “shrink” any when it is removed from the loom?

Do you recall how much of the Homespun yarn you used for this project?

Thank you so much!

Michele Matucheski said...

Dear Phyllis : How wonderful that you are making prayer shawls to give away! YOu ask some great questions! The amount of yarn you will need depends on the size of the loom. There's a mathematical equation for that ... The looms are built with 219 nails on each side, and it's always the same distance across and down -- meaning, you can pretty consistently figure out how much yarn you'll need for a given-sized loom. On a 7-ft loom, that is 82 inches across the top, 219 x 82= 17958 inches 17598 inches divided by 36 = 498 yards. So I pretty much figure about 500 yards for woven fabric on my tri-loom. You'll need a little more for finishing the edges.

With the acrylic yarn, there was some shrinkage when I popped it off the loom. But no shrinkage when I washed it. You build that into the equation, and build a 10% bigger loom than the bodies you want to cover. Many people seem to like the 7-foot size loom--which would be wonderful if you have the space for it. Mine is a little shorter than that, however. There are some very helpful tri-loom communities out there. I would suggest that you put your questions to one of those groups. I know you'll get some good answers! Sorry I can't be more specific.