Towels

I completed another set of towels over the Christmas holiday.  I wove 4 towels from this warp on a rigid heddle loom, one of them was gifted at Christmas.  All of the yarn comes from yarn that was frogged from a couple of sweaters.  The red yarn is from a cotton sweater of Gary's that had lost it's shape.  He gladly gave it up to the cause.  The yarn in the stripes came from a single sweater that had large blocks of color.  I picked it up at a thrift store in Durham when I was shopping with Judy and Nona.   We were wasting time while waiting for Cathy to get off work so we could drive up to DC to meet Martha for a ladies weekend.  I normally wouldn't have bought it cause it was expensive, $3 for a sweater.  My usual price is 50 cents, so $3 was exorbitant, but still cheaper than the typical price for cotton yarn at $20 per pound, plus shipping.  But we were facing a 4 hour drive and I knew we could get the entire sweater done, especially if I had help from Judy and Nona in the frogging process.  The other benefit of this sweater was that it provided seven different colors, making it a good choice for accent stripes.  The only drawback is that it is a cotton/ramie blend and the ramie is not as absorbent as the cotton for dishtowels.  Using the cotton/ramie blend in small stripes shouldn't effect the feel of the towel.  I put a 20" warp on the loom, because with this yarn set at 12 epi, there is substantial shrinkage.  The finished towels ended up 17" by 24".

My mother also joined into unraveling over the Thanksgiving day holiday.



Beginning the weaving



Date Finished   December 2012

Loom  Schacht rigid heddle

Weave Structure  plain

Reed  12 epi

Warp Fiber   cotton

Source   frogging


Warp Width in Reed  20 inches

Ends  240

Length  4 yds

Weft Fiber  same

Beat 50/50 

Finished size  17" X 24"

Summer Scarf

More frogging, another scarf.  This one was made from a striped cotton vest.  The vest had random stripes of 1 inch or less in shades of white, blue, chartreuse and yellow.  This became the warp, with no color covering more than 2 or 3 consecutive warps.  I like the looks of the yarn, but the scarf is a little too dense.  I'd like to get the next one more light and airy and to get that I will decrease the sett from 8 per inch and use a finer cotton than the number 3 crochet yarn I used for the weft.

Cheaper Kitchen Towels

My Mother and Gary's Mother would be proud.  I am keeping up both families' thrifty Scottish traditions, as well as following the environmental mantra of Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.   I just finished three kitchen towels on the rigid heddle loom in yellow, green and blue.  The yarn for these towels came from thrift store cotton sweaters that I have unraveled.  Each sweater costs a mere 50 cents and probably generates 8 oz of cotton yarn.  If I were to purchase the cotton, it would run $15 for 8 oz.   The yarn from these three sweaters could probably make 10 towels.  The only other kitchen towels that I have made were during my weaving week at John C Campbell Folk School.  If I add up the tuition, the travel and meals for the week, those towels probably cost about $300 each.   Next up will be towels in Duke blue with a little Carolina blue accent.

I had some help in "frogging" (highly technical term for unraveling) the sweaters from Gary, Peggy and even Emma.  The biggest issue with frogging is the mess that it leaves behind on me, the rugs, the couch.  The other benefit, other than cheap yarn, is that it also makes weaving a little more portable.  I can always carry around a sweater to unravel even though I can't carry a loom.

Date Finished      June 1, 2012

Loom                  Rigid Heddle

Weave Structure  Plain

Reed     12 dent

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count

              Color   Yellow and Green

              Source    Thrift Store Sweaters

Warp     Width in Reed   18"

              Ends  216

              Length   2 1/2 yds

Weft      Fiber   Cotton
              Count

              Color  Yellow, Green and Blue
              Mfr

              Source   Thrift Store Sweaters

Beat                       50/50                     

Size  on loom 18 x 25, finished 15 1/2 x 22

Notes