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

Double the Trouble, Double the Fun

My friend Susan showed our Rug Study Group some intriguing coasters she had woven. They were from a draft by Judie Eatough on page 62 of the book “Best of Weaver’s: The Magic of Double Weave”. The structure caught my imagination. Except for a pick-up sampler many years ago, I hadn’t woven double weave.

"Colonial" Double Weave Coasters -- Design by Judie Eatough

Now I am navigating the unknown waters of “Colonial” or “Overshot Patterned” Double Weave. The structure is related to Overshot only in the sense that double weave drafts are created using the designs in overshot drafts. How it all works is still a mystery to me but I aim to figure it out. With this goal in mind I have woven three “Colonial” Double Weave warps.

The first one is the same as the one in the book that Susan showed me. The other two are designed by me using inspiration from “Weaving Designs by Bertha GrayHayes: Miniature Overshot Patterns”.

Reverse Sides of "Colonial" Double Weave Coasters

Detail of "Colonial" Double Weave coaster
Motif not woven to square. Bother!

Here you see the results from my first warp and it is confession time. My beat was way too firm and the design is not square. This is not an overshot structure but rather a double-layered twill structure. I tend to use too much tension in all my work. Here you see the result of my natural tendency -- squished motifs. ARGH!

After this experience I made several changes for my second “Colonial” Double Weave warp. Watch for details.

On/Weave Off,

RepWeaver

Mystery Warp

In Memory of Lynn

Recently a weaver friend of mine passed away leaving a substantial collection of yarns. My weavers' guild was the recipient of her stash. Each month for several months tables bearing cone after cone of yarn were set up and offered to members in exchange for voluntary donations. The guild turned the proceeds over to a member scholarship fund. The generosity of our late friend and her widowed husband will long be remembered and appreciated.

Cat Tracks and Snail Trails lap robe woven with mystery warp yarn.
(In the background you can see one of my warp painted rep rugs.
The trim on the upholstered sofa is my own Kumi Himo braid.)

I was able to pick up some nice yarns, in particular perle cottons for weaving Miniature Overshot. My latest warp was from one of these yarns. I saw it in the perle cotton section and took it home without further thought. That is, until I went to wind it into a warp. It seemed slightly fuzzy and I worried it would cause sticky trouble. But beaming it was easily accomplished without tangles. Still, it did not behave like cotton.

The pattern I chose is a miniature version of Cat Tracks and Snail Trails. I adapted the draft from a towel in Handwoven's Design Collection #5: Dishtowels. The towel draft was by Carol Strickler and appears on page 19 with a photograph on the back cover.

Cat Tracks and Snail Trails is an asymmetric design posing special challenges when designing borders. I struggled to come up with a satisfactory idea, but am still not entirely satisfied.

As usual, I enjoyed mixing random variegated ends into the warp. By the time I had woven the first piece it occurred to me that the warp may not actually be cotton. So I cut the first piece off, hemmed it and machine washed and dried it. The result is very pleasant, it drapes beautifully and kept a lovely sheen. Now I think that the mystery yarn may be Rayon.

Another surprise was different shrinkage rates for the tan and the variegated warps. The tan main color shrank more than the variegated. This made the variegated more apparent both in color and texture. It is an interesting result and one that bears some thought and further experimentation.

So here is the final result, four nice 36x62" lap robes, one 36" square wee coverlet and a small end piece (the navy blue one). The one with magenta pattern warp was a stretch color-wise. But once it was off the loom I found it to be quite successful.


I have one more cone of the mystery yarn. I wish I had several.

 Thank you, Lynn.

Wee Coverlet for Baby

Even though my granddaughter is already five and my grandson is already one, I have always wanted to weave baby blankets for them. The main hang-up was the generosity of my daughter and son-in-law's friends who showered our baby grandchildren with quilts and baby afghans both knitted and crocheted. Weaving to give them even more blankets seemed redundant.

Wee Coverlets for Baby by RepWeaver

Then I started thinking about it and had a change of heart. My Glimakra loom is 53" wide yet I rarely weave anything that wide. Baby blankets are a perfect project to spread out a bit. Besides, the hand towels I have been weaving in miniature overshot seemed the perfect structure for little blankies. My wee ones might enjoy having something from Grandmama and maybe, just maybe, they would cherish it in the years to come.

It was the month of March when I began this project. My chosen warp color was green. In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, I decided to call these little baby wraps "Wee Coverlet for Baby".

You will notice my usual inclusion of a few variegated warp ends at irregular intervals. A little extra visual interest is good for babies, right? If nothing else, I enjoy watching the colors change as I weave away. I developed the draft using "Lover's Knot No. 1" from "Miniature Patterns for Hand Weaving, Part 1" by Josephine Estes.

Wee Coverlet for Baby, detail

These were very, very fun to weave and I intend to weave more in the very near future. Once I have a good stack of them I will let my wee ones have their pick of a "Wee Coverlet" each. They live far away but will be coming to visit in late summer. I can't wait. Until then there will be hours and hours of fun at my loom.

Wee Coverlet for Baby, detail

The Beanie Baby bunny appears only in order to give you an idea of scale. Beanies really aren't good toys for babies.

Warp On, Weave Off
RepWeaver

Wee Coverlets for Baby by RepWeaver

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.