More Shopping Than Weaving

Between CNCH and a visit to North Carolina, I haven't had much time to weave. So I did the next best thing - shopped for yarn!


Those trips were great opportunities to find yarn. I know I don't need any more but it is hard to resist some of the new yarns in great colors and mixed fibers. The yarns to the left are all mercerized cottons. Perfect for baby blanket warp.

These blue yarns, on the right, (except for the small ball top left) are from the same company. They have slightly different content (wool, mohair, etc.) but are the same color. I found them in North Carolina and some in Carmel, CA. Unfortunately they are also available via the Internet.

I have been finishing the Shadow Weave sample. It is washed, but I haven't decided if I will add a fringe (and what kind) or just hem it. The pink towel warp is all wound, threaded and tied on. I just have to start weaving on that. More on those later.

Weaving by the Sea

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the CNCH Retreat at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, CA. It was a lovely spot to be and an even better place to weave. This isn't quite the view from the classroom window, but we could see the ocean.




I took a Shadow Weave class during the long weekend. My sample was an illustration of a 4-shaft shadow weave with a border - threaded on shafts 5 & 6. I used 3/2 mercerized cotton in natural and brown. (I was glad to use it up since the brown is definitely not my color and I don't remember why I bought it.) There were 17 students and the instructor brought a 16-shaft compu-dobby loom for the 18th sample. Many people brought table looms, which turned out to be the challenge for me but helped me decide to not consider buying a table loom.

It took a lot of work to complete all of the samples, but I did, although some are very short. I still have a bit of warp to weave off. I should use it to experiment, but I will probably weave it off as a runner.

Previous Unplanned Result

Before starting on the striped towels, I finished a set of linen/cotton blended twill towels. The yarn, a 30% linen/70% cotton blend wove into cloth with a great hand. Everything seemed fine until I washed them. The blue yarn bled - not just bleeding around the intersection of the white and blue colors - but across the entire towel. It also looked purple rather than blue.

At right is a washed towel with an unwashed towel on top. I originally washed the towels with a dye magnet sheet. I washed them a second time with a couple of the dye magnet sheets. I simmered one of the towels on the stove with a little detergent. The blue is still discharging.

I still have a couple of things I can do - more washing with dye magnet sheets or using a color remover. In any case, these towels will be mine rather than the gift they were intended to be. I guess that is a good thing since they do have a great hand and they turned out very well otherwise.

I haven't washed this one towel was done with mostly blue weft yet.

Taking the Plunge

There are two things I'd like to accomplish with this blog. Having removed myself from my weaving compatriots by moving across the country, I thought it would be an easy way to share what I am doing with them. I suppose the other reason has to do with keeping current and understanding the new technology trends. I also hope this will help me keep weaving.

My current project is towels done with 10/2 mercerized cotton. They are a stripe that I put together for a calendar project in 2005.

This is as far as I have gotten so far. We'll see have it goes.