Sheep to Shawl: Part VII

Whew! It's been awhile since I posted! I've been resting my shoulder, taking it easy, and working to finish up some big projects. Well, I did start a bit of spinning on my wheel, but I'm waiting until it is finished to do a full write-up. For today - I've (almost entirely) finished my shawl I started spinning just a bit more than two years ago.

If you are interested in my progress up to now, in Part I I covered washing the fleece, in Part II I covered prepping it, in Part III I covered spinning singles, and in Part IV I covered plying and finishing the yarn. In Part V I covered starting to knit the shawl and in Part VI I covered the detail work that I did for the neck band.There have also been two other progress reports on the shawl here and here.

Today I will cover all of the little finishing touches that it takes to complete a shawl. I weaved in the ends, blocked it, reinforced the "button" holes where I will be tying on the tassels, and sewed on the neck band. I still have to tie on the tassels, but since that is a religious task, I figured it was outside the scope of this blog.

First, I needed to finish knitting it. It looks about the same as it did the last time I showed you a picture, just bigger:

Finished shawl, before blocking

After casting off, I spent a bit of time weaving in ends. Because there wasn't any colorwork, the only ends were where I switched skeins, and where I had to make spinners knots (because my singles snapped while plying). I find that the easiest way to weave in ends is just to do a duplicate stitch for a bit, then snip off the rest. If the remaining end is long enough, I use a darning needle. If it is too short, I use a crochet hook. Either way, after a few stitches, it is very unlikely to come undone.

Next, it was time for blocking. In the past, I have just used t-pins on a towel for all of my blocking, or just the towel for a light blocking. 

But I wanted this to come out very rectangular and even, and it is very large. I had heard good things about blocking wires, so I figured I should try them. I also bought some interlocking foam mats to pin to. 

The mats I bought come in sets of 9, and can be arranged in any configuration. This gives them more flexibility than a blocking board - if I had a 6-foot scarf, I could block that by setting them up end-to-end. They also store easier. I got two sets of them, but 18 still wasn't large enough to completely block this very large shawl, and some of the t-pins were pinned to the floor.

Interlocking foam for blocking surface - not quite large enough

The blocking wires were really easy to use, but 1) they weren't quite large enough for the whole shawl, so I had to overlap them and 2) setting them up with the damp shawl on my lap was quite tedious. They did give a nice even block, even if I only used them on the sides of the shawl.

Damp shawl stretched out and pinned to the foam blocks

When it was dry, I pulled it up and took out the wires. This part was quite easy.

Next, I wanted to reinforce the holes that I left to tie the tassels onto.

Corner of the shawl, with hole for tassel

I saw several options for reinforcement. The most common was whip stitch, but I wanted something really strong. There was also blanket stitch, but that looked like it was more to reinforce a hem than for a small hole like a button. I ultimately went with buttonhole stitch. It makes a series of knots around the edge of the hole, which are less likely to fray. And it is called buttonhole stitch, so it must be good for buttonholes.

Reinforced hole for tassel

After watching a video, I picked it up pretty easily. It's always good to have another tool in the toolbox, even if I don't make things with buttons very often.

The last bit of finishing was to sew on the neck band. I folded the shawl and the band in half and pinned it, so that it would fall in the right place. I used the t-pins to pin it up and down, because sewing on a stretchy fabric without bunching up is tricky.

Neck band, pinned and ready for sewing

Then I just used some more of the same yarn for whip stitch all the way around. Unfortunately, it seemed to be sagging and uneven, but I was able to mostly fix it by lightly sewing around the letters.

Neck band, all sewed on, mostly evenly

All that is left is to tie on the tassels! I am so excited to have this shawl. Remember, it started out with this:

Leicester sheep

Which became this:

Locks of leicester wool

Before I spun it into this:

Strands of yarn, with quarter for scale

Finally, after many months of work, I have this:

Shawl, being folded as it is meant to be worn, on my shoulders.