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.