Woofenwarp

Washing my finished Cat Blanket fabric turned out to be less problematic than I had anticipated. Utilizing the plastic dish tub I’ve always used for previous rigid heddle projects, I rinsed the fabric in a few drops of a mild dishwashing detergent, and then rinsed in tepid water — the only difference being that I put the plastic tub into a full-sized bathtub. That allowed for ease of draining, and also allowed a lot of latitude for gently pressing water out of the fabric.

I use two large bath towels for rolling damp handwoven fabric, and normally handle smaller pieces on a table. In this case, with fabric 30 inches/76 cm by 81 inches/205 cm, I lay one towel on the bathroom floor alongside the tub, rolled the fabric, and then repeated with the second towel.

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The first project on my 32 inch/81 cm Kromski rigid heddle loom was a cat blanket. This was a no-risk proposition, since the end result was doomed to destruction, eventually. Cats love wool, but ours all have claws, and claws inevitably catch on fabric.

Bearing these facts in mind, I warped the loom with a poor quality (and likely vintage) natural cotton. I was not surprised that it had joins all over the place — something that responsible yarn makers don’t allow any more! In testing the joins, though, I discovered that, though bulky, they were tight, hence perfectly fine for this sort of warp.

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