Shawl weaving progress

Progress to date

Dressing the loom went fairly smoothly - I had Anne keep the tension on the warp as I wound it on and then dressed back to front without any major errors (one discovered in plenty of time to go back and do that section again.  Because I was so tight on the dyed warp wool there are less warp threads on two of the blue stripes, but only really noticeable by the slight pattern change it causes.

I also discovered during the tie-up that I did not have enough hooks for this pattern, so had spend a bit of time bending new ones (from heavy wire coat hangers - I can get three from each hanger).  I needed 6 more so should be right now for designs such as this undulating twill.

Suffered my first broken thread (at right in photo), hopefully won't have too many more, but as I have woven about a quarter of the length I guess it's not too bad.

Using hand spun yarn throughout is evident in the photo with a slight striping in the weft threads as the yarn variations kick in,  I'm beating very softly - really just placing the yarn - so it will have to be a 'character' feature in the finished shawl.

I'm due to run out of weft yarn soon, so have been spinning singles ready to ply and will have to make a few more to complete this project.  The scarf (similar colours and same undulating twill, just a lot narrower) project won't require any more spun yarn as I have a lot more of the slightly heavier two ply.

The only real problem I am running into is I have a blackberry thorn in the tip of my right index finger (we pick blackberries most days currently), at exactly the point I throw the shuttle from.  A constant reminder to be more careful while picking...