Faye's Afghan Complete/Maybe Damaged

Faye and Donna didn't want their photo taken but here is Faye's beautiful afghan completed.  So much work as we Swedish weavers know and sad to say it might have gotten damaged right after this photo was taken.

Faye lives in a condo with her own washer and dryer but they don't work well with heavy items.  She asked if she could use the washer here in my apartment building and, of course she could, but I told her the washers here don't have a gentle cycle and they might damage her beautiful new afghan.  She used it anyway.  It came out of the wash with the fringe terrible tangled and frayed in spots.  I could have cried and so could Faye.

She took the afghan home wet and said she'd try to untangle the fringe there.  I think the problem was that her fringe was quite long but I'm sure the tangling wouldn't have happened if there'd been a gentle cycle on the washer.

I've had a similar problem when I've been preparing monks cloth and gotten a lot of pilling unless I used the gentle cycle but I don't normally leave a long fringe like Faye's so I hadn't seen this kind of mess before.  It's heartbreaking and I hope to heavens that Faye can fix it in some way...maybe cut the fringe shorter.

Tip for the day:  When preparing your fabric use hot water and gentle cycle in the washer.  On a completed project, it is still wise to wash it in a gentle cycle, especially if the fringe is a little long.