  We present the earliest ultraviolet (UV) observations of the bright Type Ia
supernova SN 2011fe/PTF11kly in the nearby galaxy M101 at a distance of only
6.4 Mpc. It was discovered shortly after explosion by the Palomar Transient
Factory and first observed by Swift/UVOT about a day after explosion. The early
UV light is well-defined, with ~20 data points per filter in the five days
after explosion. These early and well-sampled UV observations form new template
light curves for comparison with observations of other SNe Ia at low and high
redshift. We report fits from semi-empirical models of the explosion and find
the time evolution of the early UV flux to be well fit by the superposition of
two parabolic curves. Finally, we use the early UV flux measurements to examine
a possible shock interaction with a non-degenerate companion. From models
predicting the measurable shock emission, we find that even a solar mass
companion at a distance of a few solar radii is unlikely at more than 95%
confidence.
