Why RepWeaver?

Rep is one of my favorite weave structures and I have woven lots and lots of Rep.

An alternate allusion is “repeat” or “repertoire”. The second usually refers to a stock set of plays, songs, etc. performed on a rotating schedule. 

For the most part I weave each of my designs three times, tying on to the first warp twice. This way I can try a variety of colors and make slight design changes on each subsequent warp, learning as I go.

Results of my Waffle Weave adventures
6 Harness Waffle Weave (far left to right) light blue, olive, red
7 Harness Waffle Weave (center left to right) dark teal, pink, dusty plum

In my waffle weave adventures I wove two variations: one on 7 harnesses, the other on 6 harnesses. Both were warped with three different color versions. Here they all are.

Fall is coming - my favorite season. It's a great time to switch gears and seek new adventures. Time to get back to Rep Weave.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

A Wave of Blue Waffles

Blue 6H Waffle Weave Towel

Here you see results of the final warp of my waffle adventures, at least the final one for now. These just happen to be my very favorite of all the Waffle Weave towel warps I have woven – six warps producing 44 towels.

For the Blue towels I tightened the sett from 34 e.p.i. to 36 e.p.i. The final combination of 16/2 cotton (Natural & Variegated) for the waffle cells partnered with 20/2 cotton (Blue) for the plain weave stripes made the best cloth of all my waffle weaving. The blue towels are pleasant to the eye and to the hand. As an extra-added bonus they are very good at soaking up water, too.

Blue Wave Waffle Towel
Front side showing border treatment

Blue Wave Waffle Towel
Reverse side showing border treatment

Someday I’d like to get back to weave waffles but for now other projects beacon. Warp Rep is on my horizon. Hooray!

Loved One's health issues continue to sap time, energy and emotion. It seems, though that improvement is on the horizon. So maybe life will get back to some kind of new normal. Time will tell. Our garden also keeps me away from the loom but that is a happy distraction. Slight hints of autumn are beginning to show. Autumn is my favorite season. Happy times lie in store.

Happy Weaving!

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

Green Waffles Without Ham

It sounds a bit Dr. Suess-ish but I could not resist.

Would you, could you if they were hand woven?

I do! I do like them handwoven, Sam-I-am!

Green Waffle Weave Towel
Showing hem and both sides

This warp is coming closer to the ideal combination of structure, sett and yarn size to truly please me. The colors make me happy, too. The sett is 34 e.p.i. Natural colored 16/2 cotton is combined with Olive green and variegated 20/2 cottons. Using slightly smaller sized yarns for the plain weave warps and wefts made for the best waffle weave structure yet. Every successive warp has shown slight improvement over all previous waffle warps. It is very satisfying to watch a design develop.

Two Waffle Weave Towels
Two different border design ideas

Here you see two ideas for border treatments. The folded towel starts out with the weft colors arranged as in the warp. Then after a few repeats I dropped the green and used natural in its place. It is very different. The one on the right shows the green replaced by natural for a few repeats a short way above each hem. Although I like the towel on the right best, both are nice.

My loved one's health issue continues to suck most of the time and energy out of us both. I finished weaving this warp back in April. There is one more waffle warp done since then. I will write about that one next time. And (Hooray!) there is another new warp on my loom. More to come . . .

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

The Red Ones

You may have noticed towels from my fourth adventure in waffle weave in a photo from two posts ago. Take a look at the bottom of the stack and you will see them. They are still waffle weave but slightly different from the first three.

Four Cotton Waffle Weave Hand Towels
They are in order as woven, the red one on the left.

The waffles are actually natural
with a navy blue marl through the centers.

Three previous waffle warps were all my 7-shaft version of Draft #388 from the Carol Strickler  AWeaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns. The resulting towels were satisfying to weave and are pleasant to use. Yet, while weaving them the idea of trying for an even smaller waffle kept coming to me. Here you see my 6-shaft version of the same draft. The waffles are woven on four shafts with plain weave (red ends) on the other two.

Reverse side
The marled yarn is more obvious on this side.

The warp is 16/2 cotton in Natural and Red with 20/2 Navy blue marl. I didn't have a good variegated yarn for the highlights through the waffle cell centers. The marl worked just as well here. At first I chose a sett of 34 e.p.i. After sampling I decided to switch to 36 e.p.i. Weaving “to square” is always my aim and even though the change was slight it did help. Still, it isn't perfectly to square.

It's fun to be able to easily create a border effect by a slight change in weft color orders. I'm sure there are lots of possibilities to be explored for border treatments. Fun to be had!

The red ones are my favorite waffle weave towels so far. They are a slightly finer weave than the previous three versions and are a nice weight for drying hands.

Border effect by changing weft color order

Someone near and dear to me is very ill so weaving and blogging have taken a back seat lately. Warm weather and working outdoors are also keeping me from my loom. My heart is with all three and even though I am not writing as often, the work continues. I will check in here as often as I am able.

It is good to be alive. I wish you all good health, a lovely summer, beautiful gardens, happy weaving and maybe even a bit of fun as well.

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

Waffle Weave – Sample #5

This time of year is always complicated but this particular year has been even more so than usual. 

Since Thanksgiving we have had a week of hardwood flooring repairs and installation. Then Swedish finish fumes sent us out of the house for several days. During that process, our garage-door opener quit working. At 22 years old, it wasn’t a huge surprise but the timing was not optimal. To top it all off, this week I was called to Jury Duty. Fear of a prolonged Christmastime trial evaporated yesterday when I finished my service without being chosen for a pool, much less a jury. Hooray! Finally, it’s back to waffling.

Front and Reverse of Waffle Sample #5
Small swatches on top
Variegated threads make great details on front and reverse sides.

Here is the final sample for this year’s Christmas towels. For this one I used natural and dark teal 16/2 cotton sett at 35 e.p.i. The variegated highlight is 10/2 perle, which was a bit too heavy. The difference made each little cell slightly rectangular. Even so the cloth is light, colorful and textural – a happy result.

One swatch - Two pieces
Left: Machine washed and dried
Right: As it came from the loom

My first weaving teacher, Barbara Doyon, suggested weaving a short sample at the beginning of each warp. Once off the loom, the sample is cut into two equal pieces warp-wise. One is finished, the other left as is. Kept together with written weaving notes, they record valuable information about yarns, structure, shrinkage, etc. I have been a weaver for many years and this is the first time I have followed Barbara's advice. Silly me!

Now I think I am ready to tackle my Christmas towels.

Warp On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

Side by Side Swatches, detail
The little dots of color peeking out from the center of each waffle cell make me happy.

Marled Madness

Already it is April but the whole "March Madness" hype still rings in these ears. So I decided to make my own version and changed it to "Marled Madness".

Swedish Kitchen Towels with Marled yarn warp ends

Do you remember my puzzlement over how to use marled yarn? What is marled yarn? It is yarn of two or more colors plied together. The tube I have consists of one ply of navy blue and one ply of white spun together.

While pondering this question I decided to try using marled yarn in my Swedish Kitchen towels. It is in the places where I previously used variegated ends. This warp was maddening to weave because it was difficult to see where I was when doing the border.

While on the loom these did not impress me at all. In fact, they were hard to weave because they did not excite me.

Fortunately, initial impressions are often mistaken as was the case here. The finished towels are nicer than anticipated. Doing these was a good experience and I like them very much now.

In two of these towels I added marled tabby ends throughout. Weaving with three shuttles was fussy but the result is nice. The red and gold towels were done this way.

Detail of Swedish Kitchen Towel using marled ends in warp and tabby weft

Swedish Kitchen Towel

I put another new idea to use on the hems. You can see a couple of marled weft shots in the photo. They are spaced in such a way to mark the fold lines. This worked very well for me and I like the way it looks. Having that marled end near the sewing line at the top of the hem helped keep my sewing in a nice straight line.

For my next warp I am looking at colors and drafts for another of my "Wee Coverlets". There is a precious new addition to our family. I want to swaddle her in my love even though she lives very far away.

Warp On/Weave Off,
RepWeaver

Back in the Saddle (Or Back on the Loom Bench)

Hello, again!

Swedish Kitchen, Detail

It has been a long, long time. For several weeks I have been away. I spent three weeks over Christmas in Washington, D.C. Then most of February I was with our daughter and son-in-law who just gave us our third grandchild. Their new little sweetheart joins an older sister and brother so they are a very busy family. Mine was a working visit but loads of love and fun.  Now I am home again and missing them, yet, home is the very best place. And I am back at my loom.

Here are a few quick shots of my latest towels. I will take more but first I need to iron that stack of towels. Here also is a shot of the third iteration of this design. I am going out on a limb here and using a plied yarn in place of the usual variegated ends. Time will tell if it works. I will be sure to let you know.

Swedish Kitchen Towels by RepWeaver

There are no travel plans in my immediate future but there will be visitors. Oh, and we will be having our siding replaced and the house painted. Neither of these will take me away from home but may limit weaving time. The excitement continues!

Warp on/Weave off,

RepWeaver

Warp #110

Granite Friendly Hand Towels

Handwoven Hand Towels by RepWeaver, Warp #91

These hand towels are from a warp tied on to my previous two warps. This means they are of the same threading but a different color-way than the other two. This time I decided to place the variegated ends in regular spots within the warp. For instance, I decided the thin middle stripe in the first five towels should be variegated. There are a total of four variegated ends within each threading repeat.

The drafts are #443, #444, and #446 from Carol Strickler's "A Weaver's Book of 8 Shaft Patterns", my favorite drafts from one of my favorite books.

While weaving these I was thinking how well they would go with granite countertops. My house does not have granite, maybe some day . . .

RepWeaver #91-4, Hand Towel detail

As a general rule I aim to chose a solid color from one of the middle hues of a chosen variegated yarn. That way there are both lighter and darker highlights sprinkled in with the solid colored main warp color. And if I match the main warp color to a mid hue, the variegated ends will sometimes seem to disappear into the background.

An issue on my mind while weaving these is how so often handwoven towels are referred to as "dish towels." I beg to differ. Handwoven towels, at least my handwoven towels, are meant to be used to dry your hands. I call them "Hand Towels". A dish towel is a thin flour-sack sort of cloth, preferably embroidered with a cute design to brighten up a sometimes tedious task. Something like this:

Two of my favorite "dish towels" and their embroidery patterns
from Bird Brain Designs ( #325) and Aunt Martha's (#4009)

Another thought is that towels such as these would work equally well in the powder room as in the kitchen. No longer will I label my towels as "Kitchen Towels" which is the way I have been doing it.