Tuesday, June 15, 2010

M's and O's Towels

I wove four of the M's and O's towels before I cut them off so that I could take them with me to discussion group. I am going to re-thread with another pattern for some variety. I don't mind doing more than one the same, but more than four is a little much.



They turned out very nicely, good selvedges and uniform size. I've washed and hemmed them already.




Not sure what I might do next...

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Towels

The M's and O's towels with the 12/2/ cotton linen blend are weaving up nicely. I have 2 1/3 towels finished already. I was concerned that the edges might be wavy because of the weave structure. They look pretty good so far, but I'll have to see after they are off the loom.

The only problem I had was one broken warp thread. It was crossed behind the reed. Even though the two crossed threads were in the same dent, there must have been enough tension at some point to break it. The yarn is strong, but not quite as strong as a mercerized cotton would be.

I had to turn this bottom picture into black and white to avoid it looking too yellow or technicolor. I'm not that great with Photoshop and the fluorescent lights in the studio turn most things yellow to start with. But it shows the detail fairly well.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

White Towels That Will Stay That Way

Am back working on the big loom again. This time towels - M's and O's. I am using a bleached 12/2 70/30 Cotton/Linen blend. This is the same yarn I used for lovely twill towels that I combined with a navy of the same yarn content and ended up with navy and purple towels. It is such a shame because they turned out great and they feel really good.



These pictures don't really show it, but the navy bled a lavender. So I am using them myself. These twoels were sett at 30 epi, but I think they are a bit dense - especially for towels. It seems that density affects moisture absorption as well as fiber content and texture. So these are being sett at 24 epi. I put on 9 yards, so there will be plenty of towels OR time to experiment. I am hoping for the former.

That navy yarn, properly labeled as a runner, will be headed to a yarn exchange soon.