2018 Christmas Towels

Christmas was months ago already and I’m back-blogged again. In my defense, travel and an ill loved one are the reason. My dear one endured a final treatment over Dec.24-26. Over the past 11 months suffering has been profound but we saw completion as the ultimate Christmas gift. (Now for the long recovery.) Then I spent the better part of January in the USA Upper Midwest “enjoying” the Polar Vortex and welcoming a new addition to my family. As you can tell, family comes before my weaving. I expect the same is true for you, too.

You may recall my 2017 Christmas towels were waffle weave. Those towels are pretty, soft and super absorbent, a real treat to use. The waffle weave texture works especially well for towels.

When it came to considering structures for Christmas 2018 towels I sought textured weaves. One particular draft caught my eye. In my search and study I kept going back to it. It seemed an unlikely option but it drew my attention so I wove a sample using various odds and ends from my stash.

Two 2018 Christmas Towels, Front and Reverse sides
Left Towel: Strickler Draft #763
Right Towel: Strickler Draft #760

The draft is #760-763 from “A Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns from the Friends of Handwoven” edited by Carol Strickler. The short description calls this “Silk Brocade” from a Virginia West workshop. I am no expert on weave structures. My idea of brocade is quite different. But I don't really know. This weave seems to be “Deflected Double Weave” - a term coined, I think, by Madelyn van der Hoogt. If you can tell me more, please comment.

These were my goals:

• Weave Christmas towels in time for gift giving
• Make towels unique from those of previous years
• Weave thirsty towels with texture
• Make use of yarns already on hand
• Try a new structure

Detail, front side - Strickler Draft #760

 The two sides of these towels are very different. It's fun to look at both sides as I dry my hands. Both are nice so I hemmed one end of the towel as if that side was the front and the other end as if the reverse side was the front. That left me with the dilemma of choosing a side for my label. So some are labeled one one side and some are labeled on the other side.

The olive yarn is 10/2 cotton, the terra cotta and yellow yarns are 20/2 cotton. These were all already on my shelf.

Detail, reverse side - Strickler Draft #760

Detail, front side - Strickler Draft #763

Having sampled all four version of this draft, all of my towels except for one were woven using #760. Just for fun I had to try one towel using #763. In spite of some fairly long floats for a towel, this one is nice. In one corner I tried tucking a large sequin in between the plain weave layers. That was nice, not great for a towel but something I'd always wanted to try.

Detail, reverse side, Strickler Draft #763

Did these ever meet my goals! And they were fun to weave. It may have been slow fussy weaving, but the results speak for themselves. My family and friends love these. So do I.

Since I’ve been back at home I tied on to this warp two times more. Watch for photos of those additional color ways to follow soon.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

Meant to be Together

Three yarns for my 2017 Christmas towels came from three different sources. The 16/2 cotton in Natural came as a WEBS mill end several years ago. The 16/2 Bockens cotton in "Dusty Purple" came my way via the free shelf at my weaver's guild. An unidentified person brought several boxes of yarns that had belonged to her grandmother. Apparently none of the family chose to take up weaving and grandmother's stash was of no use to her heirs. The third, variegated yarn came from the estate sale of a former friend and fellow guild member. Although the rather large cone of this yarn is unmarked, I think it is 20/2 cotton. These yarns came to me at different times from different sources. I did not have a use in mind for them when they arrived. But with these towels it seemed clear that they were meant to come together in one cloth.

Large cone of variegated from an estate sale
Bockens 16/2 Cotton in "Dusty Purple" from someone's grandmother's stash
Mill end 16/2 cotton in Natural from WEBS

The time spots of color inside each waffle cell are a little too subtle, probably because that variegated yarn is a bit finer than the other two. The changing colors show far better on the reverse side where they form a surface grid. Even so I find the colors and the arrangement pleasing.

Waffle Weave Christmas Towel, detail

Waffle Weave Christmas Towel, reverse side detail

Using yarns from my stash, especially those that once belonged to other weavers, makes me happy. Perhaps these yarns waited a very long time specifically in order to become part of this very project. It's impossible to know the reason why the original owners had these yarns or what they had in mind for them. In my imagination it is nice to think they would be happy that yarns they held have become useful and beautiful hand towels.

Here's wishing you a very Happy New Year, a year filled with exciting and satisfying new weaving adventures.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

2017 Christmas Towels

Merry Christmas, everyone!

This year's Christmas towels are a wrap. Perhaps they have been opened already or are still waiting beneath a Christmas tree. By now there isn't much chance of spoiling any surprises.

Waffle Weave Christmas Towels

Using my own 7H version of draft #388 from Carol Strickler's 8 Harness book, these are woven in 16/2 cotton sett at 36 e.p.i. If you think you are seeing a bit of yellow, you are right. Next time I will post a photo of the yarns I used as well as some detail shots so you can better see the structure.

We had a very rare dusting of Christmas Eve snow during the evening so it looks like a White Christmas is in store for tomorrow. Mostly I wanted to write a quick post before I go to bed to send my best wishes. Merry Christmas!

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

Waffling Away – Sample #4

My exploration of waffle weave drafts continues. This time I chose to use more of the 14/2 machine knitting cotton in an eye-popping green and navy blue. The sett is 35 e.p.i.

The draft is my own modification of Strickler #388. Floats in my previous samples (#1 & #2) seemed too long for towels. Snagging on rings is my primary concern since I plan to weave hand towels. So I merely shortened the floats by shortening the “V” of the waffle cells in both threading and treadling, omitting shaft 8 and treadle 8 and adjusting accordingly.

Variegated ends that peak out from the center of each cell add interest. The changing colors work well on the reverse side making for a lively surface grid. Both sides are nice.

Top left: Unwashed and unfinished sample with sewing thread weft for hem
Top right: Navy blue sewing thread for hem weft, machine hemmed, machine washed and dried
Lower: Reverse side, machine washed and dried

This cloth is rather satisfying. As well as being great for hand towels, it would be fantastic for baby blankets. I am on the right path but there is one more idea to test.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

Weaving Waffles -OR- Never Look a Gift Yarn

Several goals combined to send me searching for a great Waffle Weave draft. The hand towels in my kitchen are showing wear from many years of hard use. My handwoven Cottolin towels are particularly worn which is no surprise since they are favorites. Christmas is coming and I always like to send handwoven kitchen towels as gifts. And there are yarns on my shelf.

Early attempts at Waffle Weave
Top: Cottolin sett at 24 e.p.i.
Bottom: Cottolin sett at 18 e.p.i.

Detail showing wavy Waffle Weave hems

Waffle weave with its superior insulation and absorbance has always attracted me. And it is a magical and beautiful structure. Years and years ago I wove this little piece (tan one above) of Waffle using Cottolin, sett at 24 e.p.i., for both warp and weft. Machine washed and dried, it shrunk a bunch and the hems went wobbly. Next I tried weaving the same structure with (white) Cottolin sett at 18 e.p.i. I hoped a less dense sett would improve the hems. The problem with that idea is the waffle structure suffered. So I shelved that goal. But I  have been meaning to get back around to waffle weave for the longest time. Now is as good an opportunity as any.

Over time yarns from various friends, studio sales, estate sales, and such have worked their way into my stash. One late weaving friend in particular was an ardent yarn hoarder. Sorry to write it but she did very little weaving and a whole lot of yarn collecting. Anyway, one way or the other my shelves hold yarns that I did not particularly seek. They arrived without plan or purpose.

Not meaning in any way to dwell on the morbid, I intend to use my yarns—to use my stash while I am able. If the good Lord wills it, there will be plenty of time to achieve this goal. Going forward I aim to use, as far as possible, yarns already in hand, even if they are garish colors, unknown fibers or difficult grist or ply.

Sample #1
Orphaned yarns somehow make their way to me
The larger sample here has not been washed
This portion of the sample shows variegated perle cotton ends
 centered in the plain weave sections.

Sample #1
Top left is the unwashed portion
I tried several different colors and yarns for weft

With a few cones of 16/2 cotton on hand but wanting to save those for the actual towels, I decided to combine gift yarn of a similar size (pink and orange 14/2-cotton machine knitting yarn) to weave samples. Love for variegated yarns has kept several skeins of what appears to be space-dyed linen singles in a very fine size on my shelf. The pink and orange are eye-popping. Aside from the color it is beautiful, soft yarn. If only those yarns could tell me their tales!

Attempting to weave waffle without wavy hems, I am trying drafts that combine waffle with plain weave. First I tried draft #388 from Carol Strickler’s "A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns". I like this draft because it combines a six-end waffle with three ends of plain weave in each threading repeat. Surely the addition of plain weave sections would help even out the hems.

Sample #1 sett of 24 e.p.i. was far too loose. For Sample #2 I tried 30 e.p.i., a big improvement but still not ideal. Later I re-sleyed to weave at 35 e.p.i. Also, using sewing thread as weft while treadling the waffle pattern for hems kept them nice and flat.

In the first few of these samples I tried to use a few widely spaced ends of the variegated among the cotton ends with disastrous result as it immediately began to break. (Predictable—what was I thinking?) The ones that survived eventually frayed away. Really, I ought to have expected problems. The second time around, I tried using my spinning wheel to ply the linen single with one ply of sewing thread. The thread held but the linen still broke and frayed. Back at the drawing board, I replaced the problem yarn with variegated perle cottons.

My friend Sue at The Willingham Weavery weaves lots of waffle weave so I asked her what she does about the hems. She told me she uses sewing thread for the hem weft. Another hint she gave was to weave in two "gathering" threads at each hem fold line. So far I haven't tried the second hint but it's good to know and may come in handy.

Sample #2 - Spaced dyed ends plied with sewing thread, alternating coral and pink in threading repeats, variegated ends are centered in the waffle cells
Top: Sett at 35 e.p.i., machine washed & dried
Middle: Sett at 30 e.p.i., machine washed & dried
Bottom right: Sett at 30 e.p.i., not washed, lower portion shows sewing thread weft for hems

Sample #3
Kerstin's draft from an IKEA towel
I gave up on using the linen singles.
This sample shows 10/2 variegated perle cotton instead.

Yarn skips in the 6-end waffles seem too long to be practical as kitchen towels. So now I am trying a draft from Kerstin's Extras blog. She analyzed an IKEA towel and came up with the draft. This structure is far more stable. The sewing thread hems worked well. But I didn’t like the way the waffle areas do not weave to square and I’m still not certain this is the way to go for my Christmas towels. The blue 10/2 perle cotton variegated ends are very pleasing in these samples. This draft will be worth coming back to another time.

Kerstin's draft makes a very stable structure sett at 36 e.p.i.
Here you see the sewing thread weft hems
 both before and after finishing

My pile of samples is growing. But I am learning lots and lots. Maybe all this pink and orange will be consumed and then with the 16/2 cotton I will begin again at square one. Waffle square, that is.

As for my goal of using Cottolin . . . I guess it will wait. And there are lots of other yarns on my shelves.

Warp On/Weave Off,
RepWeaver

Nordic Kitchen Redux

Nordic Kitchen Christmas Towels
Nine towels from this warp all in a stack
I'm paging through them in order, photographing each as I flip to the next one.

Once our house was finally repaired it was high time for a new weaving project. Many boxes of our packed-up belongings still haunt me. But it is December and they will simply have to wait. What is the point of unpacking things with a move impending? Instead of the rugs I had been planning prior to the flood, I wandered back to an all-time favorite draft. Yes, Nordic Kitchen was calling to me.

For the longest time, this bright yellow 20/2 cotton has been on my shelf. I always liked the color but was intimidated by its intensity. This is not a timid yellow. The thought that it is better to use it than move it gave me the jump start I needed. Besides, it had been such a long time since I wove, this could be a viewed as a test case. That way if it didn't work out all would still be well. I use a sett of 30 e.p.i. and sleyed two ends per dent in a 15 dent per inch reed. The pattern weft is 10/2 perle cotton.

Nordic Kitchen - Detail showing warp and tabby color changes

I combined the bright yellow with a pale yellow in the center of two red bands in the borders and added my ever favorite variegated ends. The color changes really pumped up the impact of an already striking border, a happy result.

I have to stop here and make an observation about my loom. It is a 135 cm Glimakra Standard. The water removal team and I took it apart in the dead of night. The poor thing was unceremoniously dumped in piles. There was a good chance parts might be missing. But it all went back together beautifully. Believe it or not, I put it back together by myself which brings me to my point. For years (years, I mean, YEARS) my poor loom had been in need of a tune-up. I just didn't ever want to break it down and take a break from weaving. And my loom deserved better of me; it is a very reliable, hardworking machine. Now that it is back together again, it works better than ever. Myriads of tiny adjustments over many years and many warps added up to major headaches. Now everything is back nice and tight and in alignment again. My loom has to be as happy as I am about that.

Nordic Kitchen Christmas Towels
Front side and reverse side are equally pleasing.

This post-flood warp is slightly different from my previous Nordic Kitchen warps. I went back to find the original source cited in Marguerite Porter Davison and found the earlier draft by Caroline Halverson contained five repeats while the Davison draft had only two. So I took my earlier draft and added one more repeat in that section of the border. Maybe eventually I will switch to five repeats because I really like the difference. I'm thinking of renaming my version of this draft Swedish Kitchen. Wink, wink!

Swedish Kitchen towels by RepWeaver.
Pattern weft colors clockwise from left: Black, Orange,
Elm Green, Burgundy, Nautical Blue, Ink Blue and Eggplant

So here they are - my 2015 Christmas towels. I wish the recipients as much joy using them as I had weaving them. And I wish you, my readers, joy as well.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Warp On/Weave Off,
RepWeaver

Conundrum Solved

How did I solve those four problems that bothered me about "Norse Kitchen"?

Miniaturized "Norse Kitchen" (red)
"Norse Kitchen" original towel (blue)

Recently I have been inspired by the work of Josephine Estes and Bertha Gray Hayes and have been weaving a lot of Miniature Overshot. So the ideal solution was already on my radar - write my own miniaturized version of "Norse Kitchen".


Once I'd finalized my Mini "Norse Kitchen" draft I needed to adjust the number of center repeats to maintain the same width as my original towel warp. Then I cut off the first few towels I'd woven using the old draft and rethreaded the remainder of that warp with the revised design. This required three additional warp ends. I also decided to add one more twill repeat at each selvedge which added another eight ends.

Miniaturized "Norse Kitchen" towels

While I was at it I changed the direction of some of the border twill lines so each border is symmetric. You can see the change in the red towel above the original blue one. It is even clearer in the detail of the magenta towel below.

Weaving the rest of the warp was thrilling because the result brought me great joy. Never again will I view an overshot draft without wondering how it would work in miniature. Such fun!

Miniature "Norse Kitchen" - Detail

Miniaturized "Norse Kitchen" towels showing the reverse sides.
It's hard to decide which side is my favorite.

Warp on/Weave off,

RepWeaver

Bother Number One

The first thing that annoyed me about this draft was the way the corner pattern blocks compressed. To my way of thinking, that corner ought to be perfectly square. Since I was using the same combination of yarns and the same sett as I had been on other Overshot projects, I expected the pattern to weave to square. Wrong.

Too compressed!
This corner block did not weave to square.

Then I tried using heavier pattern warp yarns to force the issue. In the photo above I switched my pattern weft from 10/2 mercerized to 8/2 unmercerized cotton. The problem persisted. Changing the sett from 30 e.p.i. to 36 or 40 e.p.i. would also be worth trying but then the towels would be narrower. That idea was quickly dismissed.

Another strategy would be to throw more shots for each treading block. I admit to being a purist on this idea -- with the right yarns, setts and beat the design should square itself. Once you manipulate the draft in this way other areas of the design tend to go out of whack. So I discarded this idea almost as soon as it came to mind.

Bother!