Ah, Steve, the use of forceps hanging from the twisted strands to back-spin themselves is brilliant! I wish I had thought of that (or asked) before I did it all by hand. I do have a whole tool drawer full of all sizes of forceps. If I ever make another one - which I might end up doing to go with each of my Colquhoun kilt variants - I'll definitely remember that.

The fringe twister tool, though, now that's just cheating!

One thing I didn't particularly care for in my knotting was the fact that the loose ends of the threads come out at a bit of an angle. So all the purled fringes have a kink at the end, like they all have feet. A figure-8 knot might allow the threads to come out in-line with the purled fringe, but it would take more time and take up more length of thread.

Apparently knotting the ends is the traditional thing to do, but this seems like a potential cause for tangling and catching. I'm wondering if there's another way to "fix" the ends of the strands that's cleaner?