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

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

Turned Twill Towels

I recently finished another run of 6 twill towels in a turned twill.  Twill towels seem to be my summer go to project in getting ready for holiday present giving.  However, these have only been off the loom a week and 3 are already gone.  Two for house gifts and one for a birthday present for our niece.  So much for getting Christmas presents done early this year.

I do not have a 12 dent reed in Montana and so used a 10 dent reed -2-2-3, to get close to 24 epi, resulted in a pretty good weight for the towels.   I used both 10/2 mercerized and 8/2 unmercerized in the weft and once I wet finished them, I like the look and feel of the 10/2 better than the 8/2. They still seem to be pretty absorbent due to the 8/2 cotton in the weft.

Date Finished    September 2014

Loom      Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Turned Twill

Reed   10, 23 epi

Warp     Fiber  cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  yellow

              Mfr   Valley

              Source    Webs

Warp     Width in Reed  21"

              Ends  484

              Length  6 yds

Weft      Fiber  cotton

              Count  8/2and 10/2

              Color

              Mfr

              Source

Beat                       50/50                     

Size

Notes  I like the 10/2 cotton better

Shadow Weave in Bamboo

Georgia Yarns had a special on bamboo yarns and I couldn't resist.  The yarn is fairly heavy, comparable to a 3/2 or a 5/2.  I had some natural bamboo in my stash so weaving a two color cloth made sense.  The pattern was published in Handwoven March/April 2005 for a scarf and the larger yarn and the looser set meant the structure would work well for a shawl.

Date Finished  May 2014

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Shadow Weave

Reed

Warp     Fiber  Bamboo

              Count  5.2/4

              Color  blue

              Mfr

              Source  Georgia Yarn

Warp     Fiber  Bamboo

              Count  5/2

              Color  white  

              Mfr

              Source  WEBS

Warp     Width in Reed

              Ends  349

              Length  3 yds

Weft     Same as weft

Beat                       50/50                     

Size

Notes

Doubleweave Mug Rugs

Doubleweave is one of the structures that I have wanted to explore since I started weaving again.  I was teaching a friend to weave recently and she picked doubleweave from a project in Handwoven as the weave structure she wanted to use for her second project.  The Handwoven project used rayon chenille and she wanted to make cloth using a heavier weight cotton to make a tote bag.  I wasn't sure what sett we would need to use for 5/2 cotton, so I decided to put a short warp on to sample and found this pattern for mug rugs, so we could kill two stones with one bird.  Glad that we sampled, cause her structure didn't look so good, the colors ended up pretty muddy, but the mug rugs came out great.

Date Finished  February 2014

Loom    Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Doubleweave

Reed  8 dent, 32 epi

Warp     Fiber  cotton

              Count   5/2

              Color  yellow, orange, burgundy

              Mfr  Valley Yarns

              Source  Webs

Warp     Width in Reed  5"

              Ends   168

              Length  3 yds

Weft      Fiber  same as warp

              Count

              Color

              Mfr

              Source

Beat                       50/50                     

Chenille scarves

Do you like my new model? He's not quite a mannequin, but he makes a good prop for scarves.  Last summer, Gary and I were visiting friends and left their house by way of the alley and found a mountain of trash from neighbors cleaning out their garage.  The owners of the house owned a department store that had been a fixture in town for decades.  They sold the real estate and closed the business and had lots of leftovers from the business, including 6 styrofoam heads used to display cowboy hats.  Other scores included rodeo posters from the 80's, old Christmas decorations that were made in Japan (pre-Chinese), and a big roll of store gift wrapping paper.

So back to the scarves, this winter I bought a number of sweaters at the Red Lodge Senior Center Thrift Shop.  One of the sweaters was a red chenille women's sweater which had flecks of blue, yellow and purple.  I thought that the yarn from this would make a great weft in a winter scarf.  The warp yarn was frogged from a cotton sweater of Gary's.  It is a heavy 4 ply cotton with virtually no twist.  What's better than free yarn?  The scarves are woven in an undulating twill, draft #204 from A Weaver's Handbook of 8 Shaft Patterns.

Date Finished         February, 2014

Loom                     Baby Wolf

Weave Structure     Undulating Twill

Reed                       8 epi

Warp     Fiber         Cotton

              Count        Unknown

              Color         Red  

              Mfr           

              Source Frogged      

Warp     Width in Reed   8 in

              Ends                 64        
              Length             6 yd warp for 2 scarves

Weft      Fiber        Rayon chenille

              Count       unknown

              Color       red

              Mfr

              Source     frogged

Size  6: x  72

Notes

Luggage Rack

Gary is a wonderful wood worker and he has added many fine handmade tools to my weaving studio.  He took up woodturning a couple of years ago and now is the proud owner of 3 lathes.  Earlier this year, he made this luggage rack and all it needed were straps to hold up the suitcases. The luggage rack is made from poplar wood.  The turned center piece came from a poplar tree from our yard.   I had planned to weave a rosepath strap with inlaid plants and vegetables using a draft from Handwoven, but the veggies just didn't look realistic.  With an rosepath threading of 8/2 cotton, I wove a fancy twill using a deep red 5/2 cotton as weft.  The pattern is from A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, Draft 323-2.

Date Finished  August, 2013

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Fancy Twill on Rosepath threading

Reed  10, 20 epi

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  Natural, with single accent darker green

              Warp     Width in Reed  less tha 3"

              Ends  56

              Length  3 yds

Weft      Fiber  Mercerized cotton

              Count  5/2

              Color  Burgundy

              Mfr

              Source  WEBS

Beat      Weft dominant                     

A Tower of Twill Towels

Weaving on 8 shafts has given me many more options for pattern and texture than what I had with just 4 shafts.  I have been in a bit of towel rut lately and wanted to see more interesting patterns than just the plain weave on a rigid heddle loom.  Handwoven's publication Top Ten Towels on 8 Shafts, gave me lots of options, but how do you pick just one.  So instead I planned a 7 yard warp to get as much variation as possible from using different treadling and different colors of weft, while using the same structure for warp.  I warped the loom with a straight twill using a natural 4/2 cotton.  Each towel utilized a different tie-up, which meant a lot of floor time changing the tie-up.  But this was a small trade-off for warping once and getting 6 very different towels.

After weaving 6 towels, I had enough warp to complete a gamp with all of the tie-ups I used, plus one extra. So if I give them all away, I will still have a reference for future weaving.

The towels came up very thick, due to the 4/2 cotton used for the warp.  I warped it at 20 epi, which seemed about the right set for a twill using this warp.

Shaded Cord

From Top Ten Towels on 8 Shafts

 Reflections

From Top Ten Towels on 8 Shafts, also found in A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, draft 10

 Interlocking Twill

A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, draft 43

Basketry

From Top Ten Towels on 8 Shafts

 Boulder Octogang Twill

A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, draft 321

ZigZag

A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, draft 314

Date Finished  July 2013

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure Twills

Reed  10, doubled 20epi

Warp     Fiber  cotton, unmercerized

              Count  4/2

              Color  natural

              Mfr  

              Source  Earthguild

Warp     Width in Reed  20"

              Ends  402

              Length  7 yds

Weft      Fiber  cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  several

              Mfr

              Source

Beat                       50/50                     

Size  20 x 30 on the loom, 17.5 X 27 after finishing