This is the same picture as yesterday, which excited some fiber-geek-type discussion.
 

You need to know that weavers generally ‘sample’ their projects before doing a lot of work on them, much like knitters knit a swatch.  Although I’m a great believer in swatching, and of washing one’s swatch as one wants to be able to wash one’s finished object, I am so new to weaving, and am unlikely to put these particular yarns together again (many were gifts, and I just wanted to put something on the loom), that I skipped the sampling bit.  I figured that if the washing of the sample turned it into something drastically different, then I’d revise my end use plans for the fabric.

Ann made the following comment to this post:

Comment:
I’m concerned that doing a true worsted with alpaca might take away
the lovely qualities of it. The camelid fibers can get a bit wirey if
they’re not spun with a bit of loft. That said–nothing beats
sampling. What will be your end use for this yarn?

I replied back:

I get the wiry.  That happens
when I overtwist, though it seems to disappear when I ply.  Thus the
decision to ply all the weft.

End use: 5.5 yards of unknown wool
fabric, hopefully that can be a winter surcote, depending on wet
finish.  I thought about sampling…but I have no idea how to change
what I’m doing in order to pursue something else, so I’m just putting my
hours in practicing.  If it turns into a 3 yard heavy blanket out of
the tub, I will do something else with it.  At least the colors are
pretty.  I nearly have longdraw down, except I think the longer
fiber in the alpaca (or my learner carding) hangs me up
occasionally.

What do you think?  Should I cut my 51" off the loom and go
wash it now?  I still have at least half, maybe more, than a pound
of alpaca to go.  If 51" stays 51" – my shoulder-to-floor
measurement is 63", and gore height is 36", so that’s sort of
usable.  The width of the fabric is only about 48",
unfolded.  Alpaca doesn’t felt much, but of course I learned that
on a separate knitting project after mixing it with Unknown Gifted Wool in this weaving.

I’m starting to think I should cut it off.  But what would I
change?

Her reply:

Plying removes some of the twist from the singles.  If you can get a
magnifying glass, you can see exactly when your plied yarn is
balanced.  Look at the singles–the fibers are going at a
slant.  In a balanced plied yarn, the two singles are twisting
around each other–but the fibers will now be running straight
again.  That’s why a very softly twisted and plied yarn will simply
fall apart.

What do you think of your fabric on the loom?  Does it feel about
right to you?  In which case–keep going.  Wet finishing can be
just a gentle soak up through vigorous felting.  If you just wash it
gently, it won’t change the final fabric that much.  After you’ve
finished weaving it, you should probably sacrifice about 6" of it to
do some washing samples.  Cut it into several pieces, zigzag around
the edges so they don’t dissolve, and (believe it or not) toss them in
the washing machine with a couple of towels.  If you have a
half-dozen samples (which you will if you cut 6" squares from one
end) you can take them out at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 minutes–you get
the idea.

I think I’ll just keep going.  I like the drape of what I’ve got, even though it will need to be lined, I think, if it’s garment fabric.  Back to the carding paddles and spinning wheel – carding woolen and spinning sort of woolen.