M and W Christmas Towels

Every Christmas, I make Christmas gifts for friends and family and I realized in early December, I didn't have quite enough towels. I usually gift from 8-12 towels.  In thinking about a draft for the towels, I settled on Ms & Ws because the last name of four of the recipients begins with W and it seemed appropriate.  I had plenty of 8/2 cotton in several shades of pink, red and purple that seemed festive for Christmas gifting.

Structure M & W
Source  Strickler
Date Finished  December 2015

Loom  Baby Wolf

Reed  23 epi

Warp     Fiber cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  Deep pink, light pink, purple and red

              Mfr  Webs and UKI

              Source

Warp     Width in Reed  20 inch

              Ends  462

              Length 7 yds

Weft      Fiber  cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  red and light pink

              Mfr  Webs and Uki

              Source

Beat                       50/50                     

Small bags

I put a short warp on the Baby Wolf in Montana for weaving small bags.  I planned to use a warp dominant structure, since the weft might be plarn (plastic yarn - cut up plastic grocery bags). Another requirement was to utilize cotton yarn that I had in my stash, so either 8/2 or 5/2 cotton.  Searching through the warp rep projects in old Handwoven magazines, I found this 6 shaft plain weave, using thick and thin weft to create different warp stripe or block patterns.  I wove enough for 6 small bags, 5 which had flaps of handwoven fabric and one used a button closure.  All had straps made from the same 5/2 cotton doubled in an 8 strand kumihimo pattern.  I wove several using plastic bags for the thick weft and several with 3/2 cotton doubled as the thick weft.  All used a 20/2 cotton for the thin weft.  I liked the look and feel of the bags with the 3/2 cotton weft better than the plarn bags.

Structure   Almost Rep Weave
Source       Handwoven Sept 2005
Date Finished Sept 2015

Loom     Baby Wolf

Reed      12, 24 epi

Warp     Fiber   5/2 cotton

              Count

              Color  red, orange, yellow, blue
Warp     Width in Reed  8.5

              Ends  220

              Length  4 yds

Weft      3 with  plarn (plastic grocery bag yarn) and 20/2 cotton                 orange
              3 with 3/2 cotton doubled, navy blue and 20/2 cotton      

Beat       Warp Faced

Cafe Grande Mug Rugs

I decided I needed to make some little gifty things for the coffee group this year and came up with the idea of Mug Rugs.  I saw these in an old issue of Handwoven, and the pattern called for using 3/2 cotton for warp and weft.  However, I have plenty of colors of 5/2 cotton in my stash, and decided that the 5/2 would make them a little smaller, closer to the size of a coffee cup or wine glass.  The 5/2 cotton in my stash comes from other projects and some arrived through a Facebook purchase.  A fellow weaver in Red Lodge, advertised a box of weaving supplies, which included loads of yarn, an inkle loom, a Schacht End Feed Shuttle, a double shuttle and lots of stick shuttles.  Oh happy day. The Carolina Blue, turquoise and grey all came from that purchase.

I will need 10 or 11, if I am counting right, but I ended up with 22.  These were begun on one of the looms in Red Lodge and only 7 were completed before we left for the fall.  So the one weekend I was in Red Lodge before Christmas, I was weaving in every spare moment.

If I were to make these again, I would do a couple of things differently. First, I would not use white as the warp and tabby weft.  White just gets dirty too easily and I can envision lots of coffee stains on these.  I would also use a pattern weft that is a little heavier than the warp, so if 5/2 is warp, use 3/2 for the pattern weft.

Structure  Crackle, treadled as summer and winter
Source   Handwoven, May 2006
Date Finished  December 2015

Loom   Baby Wolf

Reed  8, 16 epi

Warp     Fiber  cotton

              Count  5/2

              Color  white
Warp     Width in Reed 5.5"

              Ends 89

              Length 6 yds(?)

Weft      Fiber  cotton

              Count  5/2

              Color  white for tabby and other colors (red, blue, grey, turquoise) for pattern weft

             

                   

Swarthmore Check

Swarthmore Check is a canvas weave structure and which has doubled threads in both the warp and the weft.  Because there are doubled weft threads, it also requires a floating selvedge to catch the double wefts.  I wove this in a number of different patterns, some with just a couple of wide weft stripes and some with weft stripes throughout, looking a little plaid like.

Because there are a number of weft floats, these make thirsty towels.

Structure    Swarthmore Check
Source        Davison, A Handweaver's Pattern Book, page 69
Date Finished  April 2015

Loom  Baby Wolf

Reed  10, 20 epi

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  White and Yellow

Warp     Width in Reed  20 inches

              Ends  400

              Length  6 yds

Weft      Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/2 and 10/2

              Color  Red, green and navy

Beat       50/50                  
Size  18x28

Folk Art Towels

Towels, more towels, but I never seem to have enough of them.  Dish towels make great gifts for folks especially for house gifts and as thank you gifts.  At Christmas, they make a great little something extra for friends and relatives.  This pattern comes from Handwoven March 2014 and was an easy 6 shaft pattern to weave, with wonderful color contrast between the red, yellow and black.

Structure  Twill and Plain weave
Source  Handwoven March 2014
Date Finished  April 2015

Loom  Baby Wolf

Reed 10, 20 epi

Warp     Fiber Cotton

              Count 8/2

              Color Red and Yellow

              Mfr  Valley

              Source  Webs

Warp     Width in Reed

              Ends 429 with 16 repeats

              Length

Weft      Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  Black and Yellow

              Mfr  Valley

              Source  Webs

Beat                       50/50                     

Size       18 x 28

Baby Blankets

I have reached the age where many of my friends are having grandkids, and I have been having fun making baby blankets for the little ones.  The last couple that I made were delivered after the babies were born, so I decided I needed to have an "inventory" of blankets on hand.  

In looking for baby blanket patterns and designs, I ran across a publication from the Indiana Weaving Guild that published all of the drafts from a guild show of blankets in 2009.  click here.  One of these drafts was for a Houndstooth Huck woven in three colors of 5/2 cotton by Phillip Ewart.  I liked the draft and the changes in patterns made by the 3 colors.  This was the first project woven on my new to me Norwood 8 harness loom.  Baby blankets need a wider width than my Baby Wolf can handle and this was the first time I could weave an 8 shaft pattern over 25 inches.  The loom did well, but the operator had a few issues with beaming, since the Norwood warp beam runs the reverse of my other looms. The blankets were slow to weave since they required three shuttles holding the three colors of weft.

The only other issue is that the first baby born was a girl and this blanket was woven in blue and white.  Oh well, I don't think Ella's parents will be raising a girly girl and won't mind a little change up in the nursery.  

Structure   Houndstooth Huck
Source   Indiana Weaving Guild Baby Blankets
Date Finished August 2015

Loom Norwood

Reed 8, 16 epi

Warp     Fiber cotton

              Count 5/2

              Color  Poplin 36, Natural 79, Nassau 23

              Mfr Valley

              Source Webs

Warp     Width in Reed

              Ends 594

              Length 7 yds

Weft     Same as warp

Beat                       50/50                     

Size 37 X 55 after finishing and hemming

Notes

Napkin Exchange Final Results

The napkin exchange project was finished over a year ago, but I never got around to posting photos of the 7 napkins I received from my fellow weavers.  This was a fun project and I need to participate in other exchanges, whether its more napkins, towels, or other handwoven items.  I enjoyed thinking, planning and weaving up the napkins, knowing that they will be used by seven other weavers.  We had plenty of time to complete the exchange so there were no deadlines to worry about.  My only issue was that I would not be in town the day of the exchange, so I had to deliver my napkins in advance and not get to see the other three groups.  I wove three additional napkins in my color and added to the 7 from the exchange, I now have 10 napkins and 10 matching placemats.  The three napkins I wove are the three on the right hand side of the bottom row.

Date Finished  October 2014

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Fancy Twill

Reed  10, 20 epi

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  Natural              

Warp     Width in Reed  20"

              Ends  402

              Length  7 yds

Weft      Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  Various

              Mfr  Valley

              Source  WEBS

Beat                       50/50                     

Size  Made 10 napkins

Notes

Towel exchange

I joined a Towel Exchange this summer that I found through a weaving group on Facebook.  I joined primarily cause I had such a great expereience with our Weaving Guild's napkin exchange.  This exchange had very few requirements, other than getting the towels completed by the end of August.  We used the three photos above for color inspiration, and each of the participants could pick one of the three as the basis for selecting yarn.

I sent off 4 towels and received these four gorgeous towels back from members of the group, with 4 very different structures" Bumbaret, Ms & Ws, Summer and Winter and Shadow Weave blocks.  I received towels from, British Columbia, Indiana, Florida and Michigan.

I wove towels in Turned Twill, using purple, pink and orange in the warp and weft colors of navy, green or light blue.  I made 6 towels on this warp, so was able to keep 2 towels.

Date Finished August 2015

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Turned Twill

Reed 10, 23 epi

Warp     Fiber cotton

              Count 8/2

              Color purple, pink yellow

              Mfr UKI

              Source  Georgia Cotton

Warp     Width in Reed  20

              Ends  444

              Length  6 yds

Weft      Fiber  cotton

              Count 9/2 and 10/2

              Color navy, green, light blue

              Mfr

              Source

Beat                       50/50                     

Notes

Overshot Scarves

Two weavers working in the 1950's, Josephine Estes and Bertha Gray Hayes, have studied and designed miniature overshot patterns.  Traditional overshot designs often have pattern repeats that are 200 to 400 ends.  These designs make wonderful coverlets, blankets and throws, but they are not suitable for smaller and narrower woven cloth like scarves and towels.  Josephine and Bertha's drafts are designed with repeats of 20-50 ends.  Weaving Designs by Bertha Gray Hayes was published in 2009 and Josephine Estes drafts are available at the University of Arizona weaving site here.  I picked up a skein of Autumn Rainbow Mini Mochi recently and wanted to make a scarf using the Mini Mochi as the pattern yarn, which would showcase the slow color changes of the yarn.  The draft is Josephine Estes' Rings and Crosses.


Date Finished  January 2015

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Overshot - Rings and Crosses

Reed  12, 18 epi

Warp     Fiber  Tencel

              Count  8/2

              Color Turquoise

              Mfr  Valley

              Source  WEBS

Warp     Width in Reed  7"

              Ends  130

              Length  6 yds

Scarf One Weft      Fiber  wool and nylon

              Count  Mini Mochi

              Color  Autumn Rainbow

              Mfr  Crystal Palace

              Source  Paradise Fibers

Scarf  Two Weft      Fiber  cotton

              Count  5/2

              Color  White

              Mfr  Valley

              Source  WEBS