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.