Whew, I wet finished my first actual woven item from organic cotton yarn. I love organic cotton yarn, it has such a nice hand from the start!

Reading the section on Cotton in Magic in the Water gave me the confidence to chuck my Chairman's Challene scarf in the wash knowing I was not going to ruin it!

I think I made one small mistake though. Laura says that cotton does not shrink, but it has the appearance of beign shorter when wet. In Magic she says to wash your cotton web, dry out excess moisture and then give a hard press. I did not do the hard press step and I think that is why the scarf is a few inches shorter than the original woven web. It is by no means disasterous, but I'd like to confirm what I should do differently next time if I absolutely need the cloth to be the same length.

I hope that makes sense!

I look forward to many interesting discussions here!

Happy finishing!

Erica

Comments

laurafry

Hi Erica,

The cotton *fibre* does not shrink.  That doesn't mean that there won't be dimensional loss due to relaxation and weave structure movement.  Cotton waffle weave can lose up to 50% in width/length, depending on density and actual weave structure - the more floats, the more they will be displaced from the 'grid' to create the 3D 'waffles'...

As always - sample! - including the wet finishing that you plan to use, in order to get definitive numbers.

Erica J

Thank you for clarifying Laura. I knew I was missing something there. As I had not sampled adequetely beforehand I did err on the side of caution regarding how much length I wove, so the end product is just fine. And now I have a good basis for what to expect in the future.

You chose the perfect title for this book Magic in the Water is indeed magic! :)