Christmas Tree Towels

I've moved on from pumpkins to Christmas trees. These are threaded the same way as the pumpkins - 8-shaft rosepath - but the treadling and pattern weft is different. Still using #5 perle embroidery floss for the pattern.

I will be at Winterfaire this weekend - Oct 23rd and 24th from 10-4 both days - at the Nevada County Fairgrounds, Main Building, Gate 1, selling these towel (yes they will be finished by then) and baby blankets.

Halloween Before Christmas

Before I got to Christmas towels, I thoght I would try some pumpkins in rosepath. The top line of pumpkins looked a little too fat, so I decided to go with the smaller version.

The warp and weft of the towels are 12/2 unmercerized cotton.

The decoration in size 5 pearl embroidery floss. This works well and generally doesn't run. This sample has been washed.

Alpaca Weekend

I had the opportunity to sell some of my things last month at A Star Alpaca in Grass Valley, CA. It was during a ranch tour. As you can see the alpaca are lovely animals. It was a great weekend.

I was with two other weavers for the two-day event. We had a great set-up.

I had baby blankets
and towels for sale.

The Holidays Will Be Here Soon

I started work on the Christmas towels. I've got the warp on the back beam. It is a 12/2 unmercerized natural cotton, so it doesn't show up well in pictures - certainly not much to show yet. It is there on the far right of this picture.

But for this pattern I have to do a bit of re-chaining under the loom. Yikes - not a very big space and it gets harder every year...

Finished Blankets

I was able to get 3 2/3 blankets out of the current warp. I have several less than full blankets sitting around. I am trying to figure out how I can sew them together for regular sized blankets or maybe do something that could be doll-sized. Not sure.

These did turn out very nicely and I like the colors - mostly pink, but with some purple and a little green and a hint of orange as well.



There are two closer looks.
These are very simple - plain weave sett at 10 epi with a variety of cotton yarns for the warp and synthetic yarn for the weft - Mostly baby yarns.








Next project is Christmas towels.

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.

A Small Detour...

I've been doing some Weavette/Weave-it squares with miscellaneous yarn here and there. I did these at a meeting recently. Much easy to carry and do than one of my other looms.

Probably going to send them to my sister to sew up into lap robes or afgans, depending on how many there are.

More Blankets

Is it really almost June? I finished the three yellow, green and blue baby blankets last week.

The only glitch was after I finished winding the warp on the back beam, I realized that one of the yarns I used wasn't all cotton - it was stretchier than the others. Fortunately, I left more space in between each blanket and it didn't seem to be a problem.

Details for the three blankets:

Too Much Yarn - Need to Use it!

I finally have more time to weave and too much yarn to fit into the space. So I am working on yellow, gree & blue baby blankets.

The other two looms are still full, but the yarn is there and needs to be used...

Finished Towels

Well, these towels are finally finished -- well almost. I have to hem three of them yet.

They turned out pretty well and are very soft. I tried not to beat them very hard. The sett was 25 epi and the average picks per inch was 22-23, so a little bit less dense than the sett.

The twill pattern is very pleasing as well. It is an 8-shaft 3-3-2-1 twill. I am not sure which weft I like the best. I used the three different colors from the warp - natural, medium brown and a combination of natural and medium brown. When weaving with the natural, I thought it might be too much contrast, but now that they are finished and washed, it looks good as well.

Here a detailed view.

More Progress

I took off the first three towels so that I could have something to show at Discussion Group. There are two with medium brown weft and one with natural /medium brown weft. They washed beautifully and look very nice.

After I re-tied on, I used the natural as weft. (See below with one each of the other colored towels. At first, I didn't think I liked the very light weft, but I am beginning to think it might be interesting - especially after I take it off and wash it. But that will have to wait for several more to be woven first.

Here is a not very good picture of a towel being woven with the natural yarn. Because it is very light, the stripes are faded looking.

Finally Back...

Where has the time gone? I am finally back weaving again. These are a 1-2-2-3 twill using 12/2 unmercerized cotton. The browns are Foxfibre, which is a naturally colored cotton and the natural is a natural. They are threaded on 8 shafts in a point pattern. The colored stripes are varying widths so that the twill pattern doesn't match the striping, making a little more interesting pattern.

My other two looms both have warp on them and have started calling as well. Napkins in 20/2 are on the 24-shaft AVL and the remains of the doubleweave class from April!!! is on the Baby Wolf.

I am hopeful I can spend more time in the studio.