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.

Napkins vs Towels - Napkins 0 Towels 4

I am still plugging away at both the napkins and the towels. Unfortunately the napkins have still been causing problems.

The towels are doing great, although I think I should set them at maybe 26 or 28 instead of 30 epi. I am beating them at around 24 ppi and they seem to have a bit better hand. I wover 2 tan ones and took them as a hostess gift while we were on vacation. I have 1 1/2 green weft ones finished.

The napkins had several more threading and sleying errors. Even after weaving this short sample for discussion group, I found some more sleying errors. The loom was giving me fits. I guess the dobby box (the one with the solenoids) was off kilter a bit and the pattern would not advance. I was able to find some info on WeaveTech that helped troubleshoot that. So, I need to get this going, but the inertia is high.

Here is a picture of the sample and a close up. The color isn't great - it is mostly white with some natural in the warp,
but the close up does show the pattern.


I am planning to have this warp finished by the middle of September - in time for the next discussion group meeting.

More Towels

Back to working with something to show for it. I hemmed and ironed
all of the towels I still have around the house. There is one Christmas
towel left from the end of last year and a small huck towel that I think
is big enough. The green, yellow and white towels are the latest - 16-shaft, 10/2 unmercerized cotton. I really like that pattern, but the green
shows when the beat isn't quite even. It make the white on white and
yellow on white better.





I am still struggling with the napkins (16 shaft, 20/2 cotton)
that I concentrated on the towels. I am actually weaving on them. They weave pretty fast, which is great.

The napkins had at least three sleying errors and one big heddle
mistake (i.e., I must have fallen asleep and used the wrong heddles). With the fine white yarn on white heddles on white floor underneath, it has been a trial. The towels should be finished fairly soon and then I'll get back to the napkins...

Napkins & Towels

It seems like a long time since I actually made any progress at the loom. I started to warp some 20/2 mercerized cotton for napkins - probably a month ago. You can see where they are now. Well actually I have all of the warp ends through the heddles this evening. It was a bit of a mess to wind on. I haven't figured out a good configuration for the reed - right now it is positioned behind the loom so that the warp comes from the back of the loom, rather than from the front of the loom (even thought I am doing back to front warping.) It is not only a bit ackward, but the excercise bike is in the way. Sigh...

I got so frustrated warping the napkins that I put a warp for towels on the other loom. So I have 10/2 pink striped towels there - waiting.

I missed the napkin exchange at the discussion group, but one person has extra and is willing to exchange with me.

I was able to finish the towels I was working on a month or so ago. There are several green ones, a yellow and two white towels that I've gotten hemmed. I also still need to put together my samples from the CNCH Doubleweave class. They are still in a bag. Never a dull moment.

A Sonoma Weekend - Looking for the Secret to Doubleweave

Two weekends ago (wow how time flies!) I loaded up the Baby Wolf and set off to Sonoma for the CHCN conference. It is really just workshops with a few extras on off years between the big conferences. I signed up for Jennifer Moore's Doubleweave class. She does some really phenomenal things with doubleweave pick up. http://www.doubleweaver.com/index.php


Sonoma is a gorgeous town with a large square - lots of shops and restaurants and a place where you can walk everywhere. Great setting for a workshop.







It was a great class and we did lots of weaving over the 2 1/5 days. I think I may have found out the key to designing the purple to green nine-square idea I have been toying with for around 15 years.

Forget the Samples - Let's Make Something

OK, for those of you who know me, you know I am terrible when it comes to sampling. (Well, also record keeping and a number of other things, but that's beside the point.) I decided to try to just weave off some towels with the 16-shaft point warp. This is the Alderman design using 10/2 unmercerized cotton in dark green.



I am not a big fan of green, but I think I got this as part of a "surprise" batch of yarn somewhere along the line. I really prefer to use unmercerized yarn for towels, although there is still a great debate around which is better - unmercerized or mercerized. The jury is still out.

Here is the detail. As you can see, thanks to Beryl, I've fixed the treadling errors. I love the computer control! It really make it very easy to make adjustment or fixes. I am glad I had some experience in Midland with a manual dobby, but this is much better.

Weaving towels was great for a snowy Sunday.