.... and Yet More Towels..... 😁🎉

I guess you could say that I started my Christmas preparations in July by deciding to weave  kitchen towels to restock my Etsy store  and planned and pre-wound no less than five warps. This is warp number three.   Warp number four is over the half way mark and I just beamed warp number five.    I have no idea what is next after that!   (yet)

The idea is to have some lower price point items as this going to be a tough holiday season for everyone stretched money wise.   If they sell well, I may plan some more for at least one of the two looms....

I have woven this draft before and it's not only a feast for the eyes, it's also a fun easy weave too.  This warp was eight yards and so I got seven towels and some samples for my records. 

The draft is as shown and was modified from #728 from Carol Strickler's "Weavers Book of 8 Shaft Patterns.  I like to browse that classic book every so often.    I took advantage of the striping effect to use up some small part cones of royal and navy blues and even the purple.   Felt real good to empty the cones off and toss them into the recycle bin! 
 

Despite faithfully following the colour winding order, it seem I somehow slipped up and missed winding six ends of white in one section and so had to hang six film canisters that I 'chain ganged' using card board and a hole punch.  It kept them all separate and sort of behaved.   I would show you a picture but I forgot to take one!   I also had two floating selvedges as well. I set up a small stool to sit on behind the loom as when I unwind and reset the threads, it took some time. 

Choosing weft colours was also a challenge as I wanted to keep the fun stripes and bright colours and not swamp it with an over bright weft.   I end up using a colour called stone from Brassards which was the right shade of light grey and wove up three towels in this colour. Next up was an odd cone I found deep in my stash that had a tag that said it was 'clay'.  I call it porcelain clay.   Next to white it looked pinky beige and next to beige it looked white. Strange colour but it worked nicely.    The last towel also was a stash buster too as I found a small part cone of a light turquoise-y green and I had just enough to weave up the last full sized towel.

Serged them apart, soaked and washed, in the dryer and them steam pressed up.   Hems turned and pinned. It's quite the assembly line. 

I do a running blind stitch: through the fold of the hem.....

... then snag a thread or two on the outer layer and back into the fold. I slowly inch my way across while I half watch/ half listen to the TV.   I don't mind having hand work to do and enjoy it.  I like the smooth look it gives the front of the towel and a deep stitch line doesn't break the pattern up.   I have some hand sewn towels that are 20+ years old and hold on to machine washing very well. I've never had to do any repairs.

So there are seven towels but these are the three coloured wefts:

Then more of the individual towels open to show from and back.   They measure 21" x 30" all finished.

Porcelain clay weft (above and below)

Pale turquoise weft (above and below)

... and my favourite, stone  (above and below)

🍁🍁🍁

Here in Canada it's the Thanksgiving weekend and we plan to do up a nice dinner together tomorrow and watch the leaves on our chestnut tree turn gold and fall.    That sure was a long hot and very dry summer.  

We are also planning to get both our flu shot and covid boosters as soon as we can.  It's all part of getting ready for the season to come.    

Here's a favourite picture of a little Japanese maple at our last property. It would turn this bright red in the fall and seem to float in the air!
 

Drawing to a Conclusion

This was a pleasant weave after all was said and done, and not to mention the months to get it woven off! I used various colours from the warp to use as weft so my eleven or twelve yard warp yielded eleven towels!  I had planned on ten towels, but wove eleven so the last one, albeit a bit shorter than the others, was a bonus. I couldn't do coloured borders on this last one as I had no idea how far I could realistically weave it. I got four woven up with white weft, two in celery green, one in salmon pink, one in a pale yellow (not the darker yellow in the warp) and three in plum, all in 8/2 cottons. I would settle into my chair every afternoon and Calli took up her station next to the loom:

The new chair has been working out very well for me and the fact I can change the angle of the seat has made all the difference in the world. I was able to get a nice rhythm going even with moving a temple. Good music certainly helped as well. I've become a fan of Adele and her '21' album. I'm also getting smarter listening to podcasts from 'Stuff You Should Know'

I wove extra time on the day the knots came over the back beam. I find seeing those babies energizes you into action; a sprint to the finish line!  Calli can actually sleep with her head against the loom even with a regular 'thump, thump thump' ....she doesn't seem to mind the vibration.

She only woke up when I stopped!  Well, I had to stop as this is how much warp was left. Talk about getting your monies worth....

Once the cloth roll was off the loom, I had cleaned up the loom. Its a habit I do after every project and I put every thing back to the start ready for the next warp and get out the vacuum and thoroughly clean the loom and underneath. There is a lot of lint created by weaving and its not good to be breathing this stuff.  {in really linty projects I will even vacuum as I go along and keep the dust down} Since we may sell our place this summer, I've decided to leave this loom empty for now. If we do move, its a big chore to dismantle and keep everything organised. I know, I have moved it five times already!

I like to use the serger to cut the towels apart and secure the edges. It's quick and the edge seems to be reasonably 'thin' for the want of a better word. A friend commented that using a zig zag stitch seems to bunch up the cloth and it can get lumpy. There is quite the lengthy load to separate!
Next step is to turn and press the hem allowances and this pattern is really neat as it has clearly defined lines in the pattern to guide you. I turned two rows of 'boxes' over and then  turn over two more again, press firmly and pin. The basic steps for my hand hemming can be found here.  I find I'm hand hemming more and more over machine stitching. One reason is that I'm not much of a sewer and so don't trust my abilities to keep a straight line! Secondly, if there are natural lines in the cloth and you do go off, it really shows! I prepped all ten towels (the pink weft towel had gone home with Lynnette!) I just worked my way through all twenty hems on the ten towels in about 4-5 evenings.

I dropped all the towels into the washing machine and just did a normal cycle, and then after snipping off all weft tails, they went into the dryer. The washing and drying tightens up the pattern into tidy little squares that are fully reversible, and thirsty for drying dishes! Our slightly abbreviated bonus towel was pressed into service right away. No pressing required.

Click on the image to see the squares better:

The squares really show up well where it's a solid colour. Next time, I might try this as a ten or twelve shaft project with 16/2 cottons and see how that turns out.

The other towels are destined for sales and so they are pressed and primped.... but ready for their close up!
Brief review: 8/2 cotton sett 24 epi,  25" wide in the 12 dent reed, 8 shaft straight draw and all pattern is in the tie up. Breaks and Recesses #47 in The Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns by Carol Strickler (Interweave Press).  

One in  soft yellow and two of the green. I like the greens...

 ...and three plums and then four in white.
And their close up's.... feel free to click and embiggen!

You can see the diamonds appearing where two colours meet and then very distinct squares where there is a solid colour. Nice hand to the cloth and soft. I'm pleased with how this turned out with the exception of how long it took to weave! There was one more colour, the salmon pink and that went home with Lynnette....

Here's another peak of that while it was under way on the loom. Its a neat colour as it has a decided yellow undertone and so works with the green , yellow and plum.

More conclusions: a scan has shown a large disc bulging and pressing on my S1 nerve. So that's what has been causing all my discomfort which has been minimal of late. I've been offered surgery as an option but I think I will leave that and keep it as a last option. So now my 'Back is Boss' and I must adjust my activities. I can still weave but  not as hard and heavy as in past times. I find frequent but short rest breaks make a huge difference to my day. So, I'll still be posting about what's on the loom but most likely at the same time span as its been for the last while.   Since this Woolhouse Tools loom is going inactive for the summer and we figure out if we're moving or not, the next project is under way on the Louet Spring, but that's for another post.