"Rayon Chenille Scarf Completed......"

I was amazed at how quickly I was able to finish weaving the rayon chenille scarf once I got used to weaving such a narrow piece.....AND, once I figured out the "almost no pressure" beating of the weft. ;) It was similar to gaining a rhythm when doing anything repetitive.......the weaving motions became smoother and gained speed.

I bought this "Fringe Twister" when I was at Susan's Fiber Shop last week. If you recall, I'd asked her about weaving with chenille....the reason I came home and tried it, but I also asked about twisted fringe that I had seen on many scarves when looking at them at Sheep and Wool Festival. I'd seen these little gadgets in catalogs and online before, but didn't know how they worked. I added to my weaving equipment and bought one...... ;)

It really is quite easy to work with.....although, it does take a few minutes of "fussing" with it to see that each warp thread needs to be very close to the same tension as the others in the group to be twisted. Twisting the group by turning the "crank" to the right, until the group is twisted sufficiently, each warp thread is then held onto and gathered into the group as it is released from the alligator clip. The group is then smoothed out while holding onto the warp threads (sometimes there are kinks in a thread and you want them all to be even). When all are smooth, the group is then twisted in reverse (to the right), which the warp threads will want to do naturally, but it doesn't hurt to help control them......I found that part of the learning experience quite quickly....as in the first attempt. ;)

As with weaving the scarf.....the more twisted fringe I did, the faster the process went.

Don loves to take photos from different angles.......which I truly do appreciate, as the different views may allow the viewer to have more "ah ha!" moments visually.

The finished chenille scarf. After completing the "twisted fringe", I wet finished it by washing it in a load of towels. I also put it into the dryer as well, with the load of towels (I do the same with the rayon chenille towels I wove for our hot tub use, too). The scarf came out "super soft" and "drapes" very nicely.

Some thoughts on the fringe.........I do believe I will twist them a bit more next time. When it came out of the dryer, they were not as tight or elongated as when they had gone in, but did "shake out" somewhat after the end of the scarf was briskly whipped back and forth. All in all, I'm happy with my chenille scarf experiment and look forward to adding more colors of chenille to my yarn stock. :)