Water is Essential: Don't Skip the Wet-Finishing

Left side AFTER wet finishing / Right side NOT wet finished.

The right side is fuzzy and thicker -- like a blanket.  

The right side is crisp and tight -- like a towel.  The American Maid warp and tabby cotton has a beeswax finish on it that makes it easier to work with while weaving.  I think the blue wool also has some kind of "temperance" treatment on it -- some kind of stabilizer.  That yarn may have been designed for knitting machines.  Once you do the wet finishing, that stabilizer washes out and the yarn it allowed to be itself.

While I had some of the pieces off the loom, I was curious to see how wet finishing changed the fabric.  It always kind of amazing to see how the newly woven fabric comes alive and blooms once the fibers come together as a cohesive team.  

What is wet finishing?  Basically, you wash your newly woven fabric. Because it's wool, I'll be more gentle than I would with normal cottons, because I don't want it to felt up.

I wanted to get an idea of how the Mountain Cucumber would finish ...  

  

Summer side: Left side AFTER wet finishing / Right side NOT wet finished.

The difference is AMAZING when you can see it in person, though I'm not sure I did such a great job with the photos.

Of course all that uplift has to pull from somewhere, so the width decreases as as the wet finishing creates new textures and loft.

Here are the numbers:

• 25 inches wide = Width of warp on the loom through the reed
• 24 inches = Woven on the loom under tension with the stretcher
• 23 inches = Off the loom, no tension'
• 21 inches = After wet finishing

Now to finish winding on the warp for the last panel ...