September Towels

I picked the September picture to work on next. I'm using more colors, so it was a little more complicated. I did use the Random Stripe Generator, bu this time, I changed the colors so that they were used more in the same proportion as the picture, e.g. more yellow and gold than the red.

I wound the same length of warp - enough for 10 towels. Everything seemed to be fine until I went to thread the heddles. I realized that I had flipped on of the sections. There was a glop of green together.As I was pulling the warp through the heddles, I added some warp threads off the back to separate the overabundance of green. I think it will be ok. After all, it's supposed to be random. It would be so bad if the green were a more perfect fit with the other colors. I'm sure it will work out when woven.

I am threading this set in a straight draw. I am planning to either weave a point or something like the dornick twill treadling I used for the December towels. This way each set will be a little different - in more than just color.

December Towels

Finished weaving the December towels. I cut them apart last night and now all I have to do is hem them. I like the way they turned out, although I think the beat could have been a little stiffer. They are a bit "drapy" for towels.

Here's some detail. It does lok quite complicated, but it isn't really.

December Towels

I have about 6 of the December towels woven. I am making two of each warp color. I'm not sure though if I will use the dark brown as weft. I also think that I might spend more time on the warp stripe designs on later towels. I think this one is too regular - a too even distribution of the colors. They look pretty good and I am anxious to see them off the loom and washed. I'm not sure the colors are ones I would want to have per se though...

Towel Project - December

I started looking at the yarn colors I had (and recently ordered) and came up with color combinations for the series of towels I am planning.

I decided to start with December. There are only 5 colors and I though it might be an easier way to begin. I am using a random stripe generator located at: www.kissyourshadow.com/stripe_maker.php It allows you to pick the number of different colors and the width of stripes desired.

For this set, I am planning to use an 8-shaft dornick twill I found in Carol Strickler's book: "A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns" The twill will be regular but the colored stripes will be of varying widths, so the colored stripes will not match the pattern exactly. This normally makes the end textile look more complicated than it is. I am hoping that it won't look too busy.

The yarn is 10/2 cotton for both warp and weft. I wound on enough for 10 towels. I will be using some of the warp yarn colors for the weft, probably the light blue and pink to start.

We'll see how it works. More later...

Slight Detour

As part of the Holiday Cheer project, Craft Guild members are making quilted lap blankets. I wasn't going to make one, but there was some nice cotton fabric that just asked to be used. Most of the fabric has greens and reds. Some fabric is solid red and green. Most people are using fleece as a backing but I wasn't sure I could sew that on myself - without a stretchy stitch feature on my sewing machine. I found some bright pink corduroy for backing that looks pretty good and will provide some warmth.

I hope this will keep someone warm this coming winter.

Blankets

I finished four blankets from the warp - two baby and two lap blankets. The lap blankets used darker warp and don't look so baby-ish.

They turned out pretty well.

Senior / Baby Blankets

The Weaving Discussion Group's project for this year is to make lap robes for holiday gifts for home-bound seniors. So thinking about how I can get this done quickly AND have something to submit to the County Fair, I decided to make the lap robes as I would baby blankets, nbut with more adult looking weft yarn.

The warp is cotton - mostly knitting type yarn. Two different yarns are paired in Fibonacci stripe width. These are pretty fun since I design the colors as I go along. I have used the same striping widths for a while. The sett is 10 epi, which is sort of an average since the yarns are not all of the same grist. The structure is plain weave,

I have one and a half finished so far.