A poncho woven from Uist Wool
This weaving proved incredibly difficult - the wool is very fine and very sticky, making it extremely hard to use as the warp, and it breaks easily, which makes it challenging to tension the warp. My first experiment taught me to avoid warping with the darker colors (much harder to see if I’ve made any errors), and on the second go-around, I experimented with using a stronger wool for the first and last five threads on each end (where the breakage tends to occur the most).
I also learned that the shrinkage with this wool is extreme, so I warped as wide as my loom would allow for the second project. It was still difficult going, but I was really happy that I persevered and tried again (I had been really close to giving up on using this wool!). I love how the colors weave together, and the resulting fabric is incredibly light.
Yarn: Uist Wool Weaving Yarns in Fras (warp) and Dile (weft)
Specs:
12 epi
260 ends
3-yard warp
Weaving pattern: Tabby weave
Warping notes: 106 light / 6 dark / 6 light / 24 dark / 6 light / 6 dark / 106 light
Weaving notes: I used Harrisville Shetland (fingering weight) in Natural (undyed) for the first and last six threads on the warp, to try to combat the tendency of Uist Wool to break.
I wove two of these projects - one for the back of the poncho, and one for the front.
Finishing: Trim fringe to 1”, wash on delicate in cold, low spin - hang to dry
Size (before washing): 20 1/2” x 64 1/2”
Size (after washing); 16 1/2” x 53”
I cut each of the two fabric pieces exactly in half (zigzag stitching on either side of the cut to keep the weaving from unraveling. Then I sewed the fronts and backs together with an exposed seam (leaving the last couple of inches in the front unsewn to create the neck opening), sewed the shoulders together with a mattress seam, and sewed the underarms all the way to the bottom hem with an exposed seam.
I felt like the neck hole had a little too much of a wavy / stretched look, so I used a strand of Uist and a darning needle and just sewed an over-under reinforcing stitch all along the neckline.