Blankets for Girl Babies

Started with a pile of pink, white and purple yarns and found some nice combinations for baby girl blankets. There are two on the way imminently

and I don't have any blankets I can give. So have to get busy.

The warp is all cotton, except for a couple of small sections which use a cotton/synthetic blend for one of the pairs.

I am still lashing on, but I am hoping to be weaving soon.

Finished Towels

I finished the cotton/linen warp with a potpourri of structures. Several were extended point twills using the same yarn as the warp. One was woven off with medium brown Foxfiber cotton and another 10/2 yellow unmercerized cotton.

The ones that were woven with cotton/linen yarn were less dense than the M's & O's, but still nice.

Next project is pink baby blankets...

If It's August, It Must Be Fair Time

After several years of not bothering (or not having anything novel to enter) I entered three pieces in the County Fair this year. Two towels and a table runner - one of the cotton/linen M's & O's towels and a twill Foxfiber cotton one. The latter was using natural as the weft rather than one of the two shades of Foxfiber from the warp. That one got a third place ribbon.

The table runner was one I wove several years ago. The structure is canvas cloth (4-shaft lacy structure) with a basket and plain weave border. My mother cross-stitched the Egyptian figures. The cross-stitch design was from a British publication called "New Stitches". There are 14 figures representing Egyptian gods. It was a fun collaborative project. This piece got a 1st place blue ribbon and almost got a Best of Division prize. The winner of that is a fantastic weaver. A nice honor to some in second to her.

More Towels

After the four M's & O's towels, I rethreaded the warp to a point twill design. I have one towel finished and maybe three more to go. The white on white is hard to capture but you might be able to see the diamond pattern on the bottom photograph.

Detail of the point twill design. 4-Shaft / 4-treadles; 24 epi and approx. 24 ppi

70/30 Cotton / Linen in white

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...

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.

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.