Autumn Vista Språng Shawl

The Autumn Vista shawl gets its long length from a circular warp.  You can see in the photo the last few strands are ready to be cut and fringed.  I've worked all the språng pieces I've done with a warp that is wrapped in a circle between two rods on a frame.  This is the first time I've worked only with the strands lying in front of the rod and pushed the bottom twists all the way to the bottom of the frame, over it, and all the way up the back to meet the twist at the top.  That's why I say this was worked with a circular warp.  Up until now I've incorporated the strands at the front and the strands in the back into one flat piece.

When on the frame the interlinking is about ten inches wide.  Taken off, it stretches and it drapes well.

The new owner says she is very happy with the result.  I am pleased too.  I tried a new method and accomplished my first språng project that's wearable.  Concept pieces and samples are fine but I like function.  I like that a person can use this as a walking advertisement for local wool and ancient textile techniques.

That was another great aspect of making this shawl, I contributed some skill and labour to the cause of locally-raised fibre.  The owner, who provided the handspun from her own sheep's wool, will display the shawl to promote her goods in the Leicester Longwool Ladies booth at the upcoming Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival and the Fall Fiber Festival of Virginia.

She kindly gave me some Leicester longwool of my own.

The Autumn Vista shawl would have pleased me more if I could have managed to work the initials AV into it with 1/1 interlinking on the background of allover 2/2 holes.  Letters with diagonal lines are suited to patterns in språng cloth.  You might remember I did a diamond pattern of 2/2 holes on a background of 1/1 interlinking.  My last post shows how off-track I got with the initials.  I had to give up and get on with finishing.