Simply Happy Towels 😊 🌈

 

Sometimes I go back and revisit a draft and work with it again. Perhaps modify it, sometimes leave it as is.

This is my third time using this simple 6 shaft herringbone twill (four times if you include a scarf some years back too).   I have been asked to make more kitchen towels and when I ask them why, or what it is about the towels, they say "they are fun and colourful and make me happy when I use them".

A kitchen towel..... bringing smiles to household chores.   😁

Shared stories: A husband who asked where his favourite towel was, and going to the dryer to get it.   Two kids arguing about who gets the 'good towel'!

People who now use a clean fresh towel to rest dishes to dry rather than a draining board that gets slimy if not washed every day.... and who washes them every day? 

So I wound up an 8 yard warp and planned on 7 towels woven to 37 inches each and approximately 25 inches in the reed. They end up after wet finishing and hemming as approx 22 1/2 inches wide by 30 inches. 

I've had nice compliments on my colour choices.  I use rich deep colours in the little 2 end stripes and place colours that compliment each other.  A sampling across the rainbow or colourwheel.  The photo above shows the latest grouping.    If I could go back and change one thing, I would use a royal blue and not a navy blue.... but they are done.    The stripes are doubled ends of 8's cotton, treated as though they are one end.   I thought about using 8/4 cottons but I feel the ply would be rounder than two 8/2's and be more of a physical bump in the fabric.   If someone actually tries this, let me know how it went.    

Anyhoo.... I used 8/2 as I have more of it and a greater variety of colours and that was more important to me. 

The neutral in-between in this case is natural undyed 8/2 cotton.   It supports the stripes and let them shine and is the frame work for the 'best supporting actor' or weft yarn.    Also 8/2 cotton and I purposely go looking for medium to neutral shades such as the light grey, taupe and ivory cream.  But then you get braver and play with some  candy or gelato colours / flavours:  pale orange or 'creamsicle'.... light lime or 'limeade'..... or soft turquoise or 'mint'.    I carried on the candy theme and taupe became 'caramel' and ivory became 'Devon Cream'.    Salmon pink became 'bubblegum'.   You help create the fun right there on the loom!

Here's caramel 

Lime-ade was popular on my FB Thrums page. Over 800+ clicks!  😳

It took me  a while to weave off due to Life intervening (Hub was in hospital again) and also my policy of weaving for shorter time periods and stopping before I get tired or start to hurt (lower back etc). Kind of a less is more philosophy.  

But they were soon off, shown here serged apart, washed and steam pressed, waiting for hems to be turned.

Then I hand sewed the hems while we watched the TV. Thank goodness for longer daylight!  A final steam press on the hems to flatten after sewing and they were done. 

Simple and happy!   Can be a towel or a table runner. 

Hub wanted to keep one of us and I said sure! Which one?

While he was making up his mind, 4 sold to one customer..... I told him to hurry up! 😁

Here's the draft and that's a handweaving.net number so you can go there and download the WIF file and then play with colour.    8/2 set for twill is 24 epi.      Show me what you can do with this!

Quietly Busy

 After finishing the shawls and trying not to look too often to the empty spot where the Spring used to sit, I decided to get busy and just weave. So I put on an 8 yard warp of 8/2 Venne cotton and dug into the stash for my linen as wefts.

It went well until I hurt my shoulder so I had to stop for a while and rest it.   I seem to be constantly dealing with one issue or another!  Okay, weave slower, take my time and quit for the day sooner.   I also take an Advil after weaving to deal with any inflammation due to repetitious motion.

I used an 'ivory' French 9/2 linen from Brassards (Quebec) and got 2 towels and one short table runner.   It's lovely linen to work with. 

The towels, and a peekaboo view on the reverse. Hems are hand stitched.

Then there was one towel with 30/3 Belgium linen.  It's the classic greyed beige. 

Then I used 9/2 French linen in 'natural' which has a lovely hand.  Soft and not scratchy at all.

 Same yarn again but this time in a medium blue.  The pattern is now getting busy and this was as much colour as I could deal with as I prefer the more subtle look of muted tones.  Funnily enough, it was the first one that sold, so go figure!  😊

The last one of the seven off the warp is this moss green linen I've had in my stash for years. It's 5/2 and is made from tow linen (the shorter fibres) and it made for a heavier cloth. Hub snatched this one up for his den as a small side table cloth. 

There were a couple where for some unknown reason the compu-dobby would miss a pick. If I spotted it, I would go back and reweave it but some got away on me. Those have gone into my "less than perfect' spot in the store at a reduced price.  I turned hems so that the less revealing side is on top.   Once in place, no one would even notice and if they do.... well, don't ask them back!

March 13th :  I found some extra pictures of the 'raw' yardage and how much it all weighed. Thought I'd add them here.  😊

That's 2 pounds and 7 1/2 ounces!   Chubby pile just off the loom.

🌷🌷🌷

We have snowdrops and primulas up and blooming and my hay fever has started for yet another season. We love the increased daylight and it sure lifts the spirits.   There are a lot of awful things going on in the world right now and there's a feeling of sliding into chaos.  So something simple as watching flowers grow as usual in the cycle of life is a comfort.    Besides when you weave or spin, you have to fully focus on the work at hand and that is a great stress reducer!

2023: A Weaving Year in Review

 Happy New Year to you all..... where ever you may be!  🎉

It's become a custom here at my blog to do a weaving year in review. To see what I was able to accomplish in my studio. I will admit right now that my looms are very quiet.  The smaller Spring loom is waiting for me to resume threading on two huck lace shawls and two lovely painted warp scarves are just under way on the Megado.    

About mid December my left lower SI joint started to ache and I ignored it to my peril and now I have terrible back pain and hobbling through my day. Gel ice packs and pain meds are my main stay right now until this subsides.

In good news, this means I have much more time to use my Hansen e-spinner and have been enjoying the heck out of that. 

We were hit with an atmospheric river of rain, combined with high winds on Christmas Day night. The rain was literally coming in sideways. Late that night as we were heading to bed, we discovered one of our skylights was leaking.   So we put buckets under the drips and went to bed.   

I must have called every roofing company on our part of the island over the next two days and not one has called us back..... even to today as I write this.   We end up calling our house painter Glen who cheerfully came, went up and recaulked the skylight and said that come the better weather he'd reseal the other three skylights for us.   What a guy!    Both of us are under the weather right now so not able to do much of anything so his help was fabulous!

All the details and even drafts for some of these projects are in the archived months of 2023......

January

So this month was a bit of a bust as I was healing a muscle spasm in my right shoulder.   Apparently I'm not aging all that well.  I hope this doesn't get to be an annual thing! 😳

February

My dear friend Margaret passed away. She was instrumental in setting my feet firmly on the weaving path and then gifted me her loom. She's with me every day.

I placed a large 8/2 cotton order for the first time in 5 years.  How do I know it was 5 years? Because Brassards had given up on me reordering and gave my customer number to someone else.   So much of that was used in towel warps later in the year.    I also ordered some new 3D printed warping assist bits from Ginger Locks Handwovens to try out on the Megado.  I like to see if I can streamline the process and make it easier for me.   Out of this bunch of 3D printed parts, the beater lifter is great and the rest I will have to try again at some point and see.

March

Apparently this happened again.....sore back...  and no weaving.   Seems there is a pattern huh?

April

Finally some weaving! Three table runners in a fancy 16 shaft twill. 10/2 cotton, sett 28 epi.

I signed up for a towel exchange with two weavers and also started an intense search for some dusky peach silk. I had a very request by a client to reproduce a scarf and didn't have any of the weft yarn any longer. I eventually found it at Treenway Silks with owner Susan's help.  It's "spiced cognac" and almost a perfect match!

May

More gadgets:  3D printed Helping Hands warping assists from Lofty Fibers for my Spring loom. I have to say they work great and I have kept it up as part of my warping routine!   So I ordered a set for my Megado too.

I also completed two shawls that feature a soft pink Rose fiber warp and one shawl has tencel weft in taupe and the second has dandelion fiber weft yarn. The sett was 24 epi and featured an 8 shaft draft from Handweaving.net

My friend Hilary was selling off yarn from a very large stash she acquired and so I bought some silk / yak in an ivory colour.  I kept some for myself and sold about half of it and that paid for the entire purchase! Some of it will be used with the huck lace shawls currently now waiting for my cranky back to settle down again. 

June

I got (too) adventurous and tried incorporating a painted warp with solid shades and a 16 shaft diagonal pattern.   The black weft  one turned out okay but the second shows even I can get things wrong!  *sigh*  😳   I think parts of  the second purple scarf is destined to become greeting cards..... or ??

The commissioned scarf order was finally completed and delivered, so that's two more Abalone Shimmer scarves. These feature the 20/2 spiced cognac silk weft. I wove one for me too.  I have nothing to wear with it but I now have one too.

July

Finally, a chance to set up and warp using the new Helping Hands Megado version and I wrote three posts on the process. It's become easier each time I use them and it was a worthwhile purchase.  Of the other  parts I purchased first? I use the beater lifters all the time when threading.

Then there were two scarves woven after an initial cranky start.   I had a draft in mind and once I started to weave it up, I hated it.   So I cut out the weft, rolled the warp back and rethreaded, and resleyed..... but kept the same tie up  and got this unique  pattern. Thank heavens for Handweaving.net's special search features!  One scarf has a multi fleck, part alpaca, part silk weft.   The second is all tencel.  (*I always leave the lease sticks in place, pulled to the back of the loom and tied in place until I'm sure of no mistakes, and now additionally, that I like the draft.  I do remove them when everything is fine*)

At the very end of July, my younger sister passed away. She died on my parent's wedding anniversary and my father's birthday.    She was 58, so much too soon.   That's her with the bow in her hair, many years ago in New Zealand.    That's me as the eldest at the back.  I think I'm about 15 or 16 here. 

There was also another sad loss for me that day too and it's one I'm still coming to terms with. I'm not sure if that story will have a happy ending or not.  That's all I can say for now. 

August

The towels and small gift exchanges rolled in in August and helped to cheer me up.

 

My husband says our kitchen towel drawer is full to overflowing and we may need to cull some oldies to be able to close the drawer!   I think I'll sit the next annual Padre Wayne towel exchange out.....

Having said that, I have 5 towels warps planned, but there will be for Christmas thank you gifts and to sell in the Etsy shop.  The first batch of eight are based on 16 shaft point twill, 8/2 cotton warp and a variety of drafts from Handweaving.net

September

Second batch are the "Everything Everywhere"  towels and feature 10/2 cotton, sett 28 epi and turned twill.   I got six towels.

October

Next up was # 728 towels from Carol Strickler's "A Weavers Book of 8 Shaft Patterns". This was a modified version and featured blues, magenta and peacock 8/2 cottons from the Brassards yarn order earlier in the year. 

Then we discovered our roof was leaking above the garage attic. Eventually, some wider flashing and caulking fixed it but I learned all about insurance claims, adjusters and roofers.  Our roof is only 13 years old but it seems someone back when it was being replaced took a short cut and used a piece of flashing too small for the job, rather than go down and bring up a new one......   

November

The next towel batch was my "Kitchen elegance" towels.... and there were six towels and one table runner.  They are 10/2 cotton, 28 epi and a sixteen shaft twill.    I have a lot of 10/ cottons and decided this year to use it more.   It means more work winding, threading and weaving, but the cloth is so nice in the hand!

December

Last batch of towels was a repeat of the happy "Herringbone twill". They were such a hit last time I wove them and so this time I used natural cotton and another arrangement of doubled coloured ends.   This means you have many choices for wefts!  As you can see with the seven towels all stacked up here.

At the very end of November, my mother in law Lorraine passed away quietly in her sleep.  She was 100 1/2 years old so it wasn't unexpected, but sad none the less for her son and daughter. Bruce had many more years of conversations with her than most adult children get with their elderly parents.   She was an elegant lady, fierce Canucks hockey fan and loyal Blue Jays baseball fan.  She had jerseys for both teams. She celebrated all the events on the calendar, but her favourite holiday was Christmas and sadly she missed this one.

This is Lorraine as a two year old holding her doll while climbing up on the pilot of a steam locomotive 98 years ago.

So despite some back pains and heart aches I did manage to get some weaving done and the totals are"

towels 33

scarves 6

shawls 2 

runners 5

deaths 3

dental surgeries 2

roof leaks 2

towel exchanges 2

bad back spells  3

Sunrise at Willow Point, south of Campbell River, BC

Then a few hours later in full daylight.

I hope your coming year is healthy, happy and with smooth warps and swift shuttles!