Well all that fluff is REALLY tedious to weave in. I'm adding 8+ bits of fluff every other throw of my shuttle. I worry that I'm not adding enough, but it is turning out so soft! This first few inches has been a lot of learning with the pencil roving. I'm not sure what kind of wool it is, but it's very soft. The staple length seems to be in the 4- 6 inch range. I'm also learning how to twist the roving around a warp thread on one side, pull it through the shed, then leave a little tail on the other side. This is my reference for that style knot: Traditional Icelandic Rya Knots
I expect that the first few times I wear this, I will be covered in bits of wool that aren't sufficiently anchored. My current plan is to do a bit of felting as part of my wet finishing process. I don't usually process my woven pieces in hot water when they come off the loom. But in an effort to make the wool fibers tighten up and shed less, I think it's a valid method to try. A lot of the research I'm finding shows that often fabrics were felted. There aren't a ton of extants of woven fabric, never mind pile woven fabrics, and what is left doesn't give me a whole lot of info on the structure. For this piece, I'm back at my favorite 2x2 twill with 10 rows of tabby weave and hemstitching as the footer. I usually like fringe on the ends of my wraps, and with the shaggy nature of this piece, I think it will suit to leave the fringe on. I'm pulling this inspiration for this vararfeldur from a few images and have been pleased to find a lot of research that shows these style garments to be wide spread across northern Europe.
Links to research articles:
I'm also pulling from Barber's Prehistoric Textiles and will revisit Valkyrie's loom.
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