A handwoven deflected doubleweave merino shawl in purple, pink, lilac and blue - 72cm wide, float deflection creates the mosaic, made by Emma Baker in Salisbury
 
This shawl is handwoven by Emma Baker on her Louet floor loom in Salisbury, Wiltshire using an 8-shaft deflected doubleweave structure in fine merino lambswool. The shawl is 72cm wide and 152cm long - wide enough to cover the full shoulders, to wrap around the body, or to wear as a genuine wrap. The palette of purple, pink, lilac and blue is distributed across the mosaic pattern of the deflected doubleweave surface.
 
How the float deflection creates the pattern
The deflected doubleweave design uses 8 shafts with areas of longer warp and weft floats. The merino yarn arrives from the spinner coated in spinning oils that give the fine yarn additional strength during weaving. When the fabric is washed after weaving, these oils are removed. As they leave, different areas of the fabric experience differential shrinkage depending on the length of the floats in each zone: shorter floats shrink less, longer floats shrink more. This difference in shrinkage causes the fabric layers to deflect relative to each other, pulling adjacent threads into the mosaic pattern and softening the edges between design zones. The pattern visible on the shawl is the product of physics acting on different float lengths during washing.
 
72cm wide - the widest handwoven accessory in this collection
At 72cm wide and 152cm long, this is a true statement shawl in scale as well as character. It can be draped across both shoulders with fabric to spare, wrapped around the body as a light coat alternative, or worn as a generous wrap in multiple configurations. The 1cm frayed fringe at each end is a characteristic of the handwoven structure - the warp ends left free after the woven area ends.
 
What makes this shawl special
Handwoven by Emma Baker in Salisbury, Wiltshire on a Louet floor loom
8-shaft deflected doubleweave - float deflection creates the mosaic during washing
Fine merino lambswool in purple, pink, lilac and blue 
72cm wide × 152cm long - widest handwoven accessory in this collection
1cm frayed fringe at each end
One of a kind - each shawl is individually woven, the pattern unrepeatable
 
A super special luxury handwoven gift
The float deflection mechanism, the 72cm generous width, the four-colour palette, and the fine 8-shaft merino make this the most technically accomplished shawl in Emma’s collection. A significant birthday, an anniversary, a retirement gift, or any occasion where a genuinely extraordinary piece of handcraft is wanted. At £260 this is a once-in-a-generation gift.