I’m trying to make a shawl similar to my Harris Tweed wrap that I got in Scotland.
These Shetland singles break easily with a light pull, and they are springy.
I thought about plying these singles on my spinning wheel, and decided to just try weaving with the singles soaked in Sta-Flo sizing.
My Harris tweed wrap measures 30” wide and 75” long, including a small 1/4” fulled fringe. I was able to pick apart some fringe to see the size of the original thread and count the stripes. It is sett at 20 epi (measurement of fulled fabric).
My Shetland tweed is thinner than the Harris. I wrapped it around a ruler and took 75% of the wraps in one inch, and determined I need a sett of 25epi. I will use a 50/10 reed, 2 per dent.
My fabric will be 36” wide in the reed. I will weave it to at least 90”. I wound a 4-yard warp of 908 ends. I added a few threads on the edge to make the stripes come out even.

I wound 12 ends of the main color, then 4 ends of the accent color. I rotated the accent colors. I ended the second bout with 12 ends of main color. My 2 warp bouts weigh 11OZ/313g total. I soaked them overnight in heavy Sta-Flo, half starch and half water.
My colors were Black Grouse (a very dark blue with sparks of other bright colors blended in), harebell (a sky blue), great burnet (a deep wine red), russett (a reddish brown) and pheasant (a copper brown). The Black grouse will be the main color, the others will be stripes.
The Shetland yarn is 6135ypp according to Colourmart. It was spun by Gardiner of Selkirk in Yorkshire, UK.
I will use a 2-2 twill for this sample project. If it is successful, I will make 2 or 3 more shawls in herringbone.

Weaving
This yarn was very sticky. I soaked the warp overnight in heavy StaFlo starch, 50/50 starch/water. It beamed on with only one broken warp thread. I used carbon fiber tubes for lease sticks. I kept lease sticks separate, not tied together, to help prevent threads bunching up. Rubber bands at ends of tubes kept the yarn safe from falling off. I put 3-4 warp sticks around every beam rotation (after my usual single round of edge to edge sticks on the first beam rotation) to keep yarn from sticking to itself. Threaded straight draw across 8 shafts, this helped keep threads more separate. Tied up 4 treadles for 2-2 twill. Sleyed reed, yarn proved to be strong enough to hold up, even though I could see some thinly spun spots in one of the brown colors…maybe it was a faulty remainder yarn? But it held up, only one thread broke from abrasion by the center countermarch cord. I should try counterbalance next time.
I got good sheds, but threads continually stuck together, causing frequent weft skips. I sprayed the warp with Faultless starch. This helped, but I gave up trying to weave perfect cloth and just threw the weft, skips and all. I worried about tightening the warp too much, stretching the yarn too much, since the singles pulled apart so easily in the warp strength test. But I discovered I could tighten it fairly firmly, which made shuttle throwing easier. I used a Bluster Bay closed-bottom 12” slim shuttle and quills.
I pulled the beater forward pressing the fell firmly. Then I changed sheds and released beater for next pick. I did not double-tap the fell. Doing so would create a tighter web, making the cloth better for sewing clothes, like a vest or jacket. But I wanted a supple shawl material. I achieved that.
I wove the whole yardage, to 95.5”.
I tied the fringe in loose knots since they would be cut off after fulling.
About a yard of loom waste.
Burling
I hung the fabric from an irrigation pipe on my back patio. It was easy to inspect it in the sunshine.
I burled the fabric (checked it for imperfections) and chose to leave tiny skips in situ. I repaired larger errors, places where the twisty weft doubled back on itself, making a lump.
Wet-finishing/Scouring
I dissolved Dawn soap in hot water until water felt slippery (don’t let soap foam,…fill tub, add soap, swirl with spoon to dissolve). Soaked griege fabric, then lightly agitated by hand. Wool had a strong sheep smell! Like I was washing a fleece! I guess that means it’s real wool, haha. Water was very dark blue. I poured first bath out and made a second bath. Light agitation again, squeezing soap out of fabric, and light thwacking on the countertop. I put fabric on spin cycle of my front-loader washing machine. I spun 11 minutes with soap still in fabric. This made it easier to rinse in the tub by hand. Once it was rinsed, I spun it again for 11 min. (That’s just the time the machine is programmed for. I bemoan the loss of my simple and “dumb” top-loader, which I could control easier. I could watch the fabric agitate with the lid open! These “smart” computerized machines are really idiotic. /rant) I air-dried the fabric and ironed it with a hot iron. The fabric was not fulled; the web was like window screen mesh. More fulling was needed.
Milling/Fulling
I bravely put the fabric in my front-loader with some liquid soap and programmed Hot water. I planned to pause the cycle to check fulling level. After a somewhat lengthy and stressful battle with my top-loader’s child lock function, I removed the soaking wet soapy, hot fabric and put it in the plastic tub. It was perfectly fulled!
I rinsed it by hand, machine-spun for 11 minutes, and laid it out on my teak patio table with a table cloth. I wanted to try brushing the nap.
Raising/Brushing
I found a stiff synthetic suede brush which worked perfectly. I brushed warpwise both directions, then weftwise both directions. Then I tapped the fabric with the brush to bring the nap straight up. This worked really well. I only did one side, so one side is slightly fuzzy and the other is relatively smooth.
Decatising/Steaming
Machine-processed wool undergoes a process of pumping hot and cold steam through the fabric to set it. I imitated this by laying the brushed side face down on a terry cloth towel and running a steam iron scross the smooth side. This worked really well. The finished fabric has a smooth side and a brushed side. It’s beautiful!
Fringe
I learned that I should’ve cut the fringe before fulling. I was able to cut the knotted locks to about 1”, then I gently pulled the matted threads apart. This sort of worked. I then trimmed the fringe to about 1/2”.

The final size is perfect. The width is just 1/2” wider than my Harris Tweed. It’s longer, but I’m tall, so that is fine.
Finished dimensions:
30.5” wide
89.5” long
7% shrinkage in length, 16% shrinkage in width. Wow.

Wool finishing instructionshere