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.

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.