FO Alert: Florida Gators Herringbone Scarf

 The woven scarf is complete! 

Finishing a woven project is different than finishing a knit. With knitting, the fabric is made up of rows of loops, and it's important that the yarn be able to move across those loops for the fabric to maintain its stretch and drape. With weaving, even when weaving with the same fibers that you would knit with, you don't want the fibers to move after the weaving is complete.

As I've explored in a previous post, with knitting you block, or stretch your fabric to achieve the desired shape. There is a lot of play in how the fabric will dry, and it will maintain that shape until you either get it wet and re-shape it, or until the fibers return to their natural state over time, necessitating the re-shaping. In weaving, you want to full the fibers - that is agitate the fiber so that it clings to the fiber next to it. You don't want any movement of the thread once the fabric is complete. So what is sacrilege in knitting is actually the finishing process for weaving. To full the final piece, you have to (GASP) put it in the washer and dryer. 

Close up of herringbone pattern

Yep folks, you heard it here - I intentionally machine washed and dried this scarf. It even went to its forever home with care instructions indicating that this is the way to wash this in the future! I know, it's crazy! 

But that's the whole reason why machine washing your handknits is discouraged - the more you use machine agitation, the less drape and stretch you will have in your garment. With weaving we don't want that stretch, so forcing those fibers to grab onto their neighbors is the desired result. That said, I won't lie, every time I full a woven project I get a whopping dose of anxiety and I mother hen that baby in the washing machine until it's done.