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