Weaving a wool shawl

So I am working on my first non rug. I bought some beautiful hand painted wool from Brown Sheep Company in Mitchell. It is gray, blue, and purple. For the warp I bought some wool call blue fog. I'm not so sure about the warp though. Maybe it's just not as strong as the rug warp, because I keep breaking them. I have tied them back on and now I have adjusted the tension so that it is not so tight. Hopefully that will work. It's going to be too warm to wear it soon, but a least I can say I made a shawl.

Brown Sheep Company

Today I went to the Brown Sheep Company over by Mitchell. I was very impressed. Very friendly and they had so many beautiful colored yarns. Wool, mohair, silk and cotton. They had these wonderful hand dyed wools in all these variegated colors. It was started in 1980 by Harlan Brown and now they sell all over the US. And when you walk in there were several beautiful handwoven wool rugs. I bought a beautiful thick amethyst 100% wool yarn. I'm not quite sure what I am going to make out of it just yet. Check out their web page www.brownsheep.com

Wool

Wool is a very wonderful fabric and has been around for a very long time. Wool will absorb up to 30% of its weight in moisture without feeling damp. Most fabric like cotton absorbs less than 15% and starts to feel damp. It's also dirt resistant and flame resistant. Woolen fabrics are soft and heavier. Worsted wool creases better and is less bulky. Tartan's are plaid that come from Scotland and were used to identify clans. Tweeds have little nubs of color throughout the fabric. Gabardine is tightly woven with diagonal ribs. Jersey is lightweight with knit stitches on one side and rounded stitches on the other. And Merino is made from Merino sheep and is of the highest quality said to resemble cashmere. There are more kinds of wool too. Check out www.denverfabrics.com, and www.fabric.net/wool for lots more info.

Irish walking cape

There have been several magazines sellingIrish walking capes recently. The are a beautiful wool ponch/cape and they retail for $250-$500. I have been trying to figure out how to make them with no luck. Until yesterday. The nicest woman has a handmade wool one that she let me look at. Her's is beautiful shades of purple with cranberry. Two pockets and a button on the side. A zipper up the front and a collar. Very simple but quite striking. I would change the aipper and add a button or two at the neck so that it would overlap. I am going to expand my cape line to include these. I think I will start out with fleece until I can find a good supplier of wool.