Mardi Gras Towels: A Splash of Colour 🌈

 Apparently some time has passed since I last posted!   Oops....   it wasn't on purpose, I have been side tracked with some Life issues.    Now Christmas is almost on us.... so more hustle and bustle.

So if you are taking a break from holiday preparations, let me tell you about my second project on Maeve, my Megado 90.   After some fairly 'vanilla' colours in my first project, I decided to get a burst of colour. I have a large collection of 10/2 cottons and so I looked through the brights and pulled together this warp.   Each section is a point twill or reversed point twill.   It was the same  threading as the first warp or from handweaving.net's draft # 79912. I didn't like the weird line that appeared across the weft every pattern repeat so decided to look for and change to a new tie up. I found the tie up for #34861 on this threading looked kinda nice.

Beaming on 7.5 yards

And using weights on the various warp bouts to tension.

This was the first of three treadling variations; 2 towels of each. 

This gives you an idea of the threading and one of the style of treading I used. Easy enough to play around with and create a new look. 

This is the draft 34861 where I 'borrowed' the tie up plan. I have used this one before and it's a nice crisp design as is.    Its goes to a new level with the threading change.

They look great with the black and brushed nickel appliances.   I had to crop this one as the reflection showed me in my nightie!  Geesh....    Sunshine appeared briefly so I ran for the camera!  

I got six full sized towels, which I laundered, steam pressed and turned the hems for hand sewing.

I couldn't decide which side I preferred to make the top side, so I hemmed one either way in each grouping. Each of these three pictures show both sides. 

And below is a more open towel, one showing the darker weft..... 

.... and the more brighter side.

One was gifted to a friend and another was sold and is in Ontario.  It was a good Christmas sale time for Canadian vendors on Etsy as Canadians focused on buying  🇨🇦 made goods. 

Today is the winter Solstice: the shortest day of the year and longest night.  First day of winter and the start of the return of the light.   This day has the most meaning for me, and I love all the light displays around town.

Wishing you and yours, a joyful Season!  🎄 🎁

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!

On My Loom Now 📸

 When I start something new, I usually weave some towels to get use to the changes. New dobby on the loom, so more towels.  

This is a 16 shaft twill and basket weave, most likely from Handweaving.net but I seem to have misplaced the number. It drove me crazy looking for threading errors! So I have declared there were none....

8 yard warp of Venne cotton and all wefts used for the 7 towels will be linen. This is 9/2 French linen from Brassards. The reverse side is darker....a mirror image.

It’s good to be weaving again, even if for short periods. If my back starts to make its presence known, I stop or move onto something else. 

The draft is nifty and I have had it in my ‘to-do’ file for a long time. There was a post it note attached with the handweaving.net number and it dropped off. I checked my copy on Fiberworks as I usually keep the number under the ‘notes and records’ and I didn’t add it….. but this would have been years ago so I’ll just have to look around on the website.

I’m also enjoying the weaving and looking at it from the view point of where to add colour in the warp next time I weave it up again. How to make the celtic knot work more ‘out there.' 

.... 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!
 

Everything, Everywhere Towels

I have been itching to weave a turned twill project for some time.  So I dug around in my stash of 10/2 cotton (of which I have a lot 😳 )   and pulled together some colours.   Now the drafts below show the basic arrangement of the two blocks and the colour transitions, but the actual colours are much more muted than the ones I grabbed off the colour bar.  I don't get that persnickety with the colours as I keep the original cones out and close to hand to view as I work. 

These are Web's Valley yarns  and the entire range of colours have a muted or saddened quality to the shades. I must confess that I double and triple checked my selection and wondered if I had chosen right.   I decided to go with it and time would tell.... plus the weave part!

Another part of that 'going with it' mind set was trying a small 8 thread colour gradation between colour changes. It worked fine between the closer value shades but the deeper, darker ones? Not so well.    Next time I would leave this part out and just go with solid blocks instead.   It was worth a try....

 

Winding the warp took time due to the colour gradation but soon we had the 8 yards warp on, threaded and sleyed for 28 epi.   This is the only picture of the work on the loom, where I'm trying out bands of colours and decided to go with them and simply repeat.

Actually, I got 6 towels and one small side table cloth and each time I simply went with what felt okay at the time. No set plan for treadling the blocks or colour.   I did learn that the dark Victorian Blue was a touch too dark and a small amount of the Autumn Blonde yellow went a long way.    So I focused on the others instead: Dark Teal, Willow green, Cameo Rose and Camel.

So once off the loom the cloth roll make a nice chunky ball of fabric and it weighed in at 2 pounds, 2 1/2 ounces before cutting apart and trimming off loom waste etc.

That is 980 grams in metric for my Canadian and European readers.  🌎     I got busy with the serger and they had a bath and dried.   Steam pressed and hems turned.   Some enjoyable sewing by the TV at night and soon they were ready.   From the designing process right through to the final sewing..... it's a steady step by step process and a lot of work.  Good thing I like it huh?

6 towels that I'm calling the "Everything, Everywhere" towels due to the colours and blocks being, well everywhere!

This towel above is the one that was shown under way on the lot earlier.  Interestingly, its my favourite of the bunch.

One with blocks of the darker blue and small narrow bands of pinks and greens.

Two towels woven the same way using lighter wefts, one of which sold right away. 

Then another featuring the dark teal, and small bands of colour.

Some are similar in block design and colours but with some differences.  

Hubby had just bought a little side table for his den and it turned out that I had just enough to make a small cloth for it.  Adds protection but doesn't hide some of its features.

Turned twill seems to be a great way to get  some bold patterning and colour play.  If you have a weaving program, you can create a basic draft of the threads and then play with colour arrangements, based on your stash.  It's early September and if you chose a Christmas colour theme, you have time to weave up a batch for gifts.  🎅🏻🎄🎁

Back soon.... with more towels!