Taking Another Path

I like to check in with the new owner of my old Megado and see what they are up to to.  Some months ago Jessica had some happy bright towels on and the pattern was very pretty!   It resembled a flower and she shared the draft number from handweaving.net with me.   16 shaft twill as shown below.

So I worked up  a draft in some colours to hand and was quit excited about the project.  612 ends, 24 epi and approximately 8 yards long.  A big commitment!   (colours below are much brighter than the actual ones used. I get lazy and use something 'close enough' and don't fuss about in Fiberworks)

 

# 79714

Once I got started I noticed an issue right away with a very long float, coming from shaft number 5 and about 10-12 pics long! 😳   I immediately checked the threading and all was correct.  I checked the shaft to see if it was floating.... nope.  I checked my dobby to make sure all the solenoids were firing as they should and all was working well.      

I thought about it for a few hours and decided that it simply wasn't worth the time and aggravation to track it to the source and so went looking for another tie up to use.    A year ago when my loom was brand new I wove up the draft below # 79912.    I did a test run and it looked great and so that's what I went with.

I used the threading from #79714 and the tie up from #79912 and went down another path entirely! 

                                    I used only the tie up only of #79912

A test run to see how they meld together....   All 8/2 cottons from Brassards, of Quebec.  Sett 24 epi.

And after a time, 8 yards came off the loom.    I had woven all 7 towels differently in some way.

This one with the window panes is my favourite.

This one I wove colour in the small stripes and white elsewhere.

Here a colour block followed by a same sized white.

Next up I simply wove all white weft so the warp stripes are more dominant.

The window pane effect was colour and then white for all small cross stripe.

This towel has alternating colour blocks in sequence and no white weft at all.

Then all white but with a border at either end: periwinkle, turquoise and salmon

Same again but this time with: periwinkle, pink and salmon.

So my kitchen towel Christmas war chest is nicely full!    I have a total of 23 towels on hand now.  I'm still planning another 8.5 yard herringbone twill towel warp though as they are very popular.   Times are going to be hard and money tight this next year or two.....   I'm trying to check the crystal ball  and read the tea leaves here....  Results may vary!