Spring Sunshine and Happy Colors

Great Colors Make Me Happy

Things that make me happy include grandchildren, sunshine, flowers and just the right color combinations.

My third foray into Strickler Draft #760 was a happy one. Color is one of my life-long delights. I am rather a practical person. Still, practicality does not exclude beauty.

I take particular joy in weaving everyday household textiles that are both useful and visually pleasing. This kitchen hand towel exemplifies my goal and makes me happy.

Kitchen Hand Towel, Stickler #760

Structure: Deflected Double Weave, #760 from "A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns from the Friends of Handwoven" edited by Carol Strickler

Yarns: 10/2 and 20/2 perle cottons in three solid colors and one variegated. Sett: 30 e.p.i.

Third color way of Stickler #760 on 8 Harnesses

Reverse Side, Third color way of Stickler #760

Spring has sprung. Yard work beckons and the fun continues.

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.

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

Bother Number Three

Take a close look at the double narrow wavy lines that define each border area. After sitting at the loom weaving those narrow lines really got to me. The twill threading for each of them in the original Davison draft is 4, 3, 2, 1 meaning that each curvy line all the way across the warp curves in the same direction. This is especially noticeable in the corner block in the borders. Perhaps this would not bother others but I did not like it.

"Norse Kitchen" towel - draft from A Handweavers' Pattern Book
Notice the way the twill lines all curve in the same direction. It's especially noticeable in the corners of the borders.

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!

A Christmas Conundrum

In my earliest weaving days a draft in the classic Marguerite Porter Davison "A Handweaver's Pattern Book" caught my eye and my imagination. The draft, called "Norse Kitchen" is on page 186 of the chapter Squares with Borders. The draft is simply stunning: a lovely center ground with classic, intricate borders.

First few "Norse Kitchen" towels.
Pattern Wefts:
Red - 10/2 perle cotton
Green - 8/2 unmercerized cotton
Blue - Cottolin

Lately my weaving adventure has led me to several projects using Miniature Overshot. You will find a few of them here on my blog. As I was considering this year's Christmas, overshot was definitely on my mind. Norse Kitchen's time had come. Using the same set-up as those Miniature Overshots I've been weaving I set out on November 10th with excitement both in the project and in my early start. There would be no midnight oil this year -- no, not for me.

I warped 10 yards of bleached white 20/2 cotton sett at 30 e.p.i. and set to work. That's when Norse Kitchen began to sour. Something about this draft was different. All along I had been using 10/2 perle cotton as pattern wefts at 30 e.p.i. But it quickly became clear that 10/2 cotton would not work as the pattern weft for Norse Kitchen. It wasn't heavy enough to square the design. What to do . . . ? I would either change the sett or change the pattern weft. Choosing the latter I wove a green towel using 8/2. Still the design would not square. It didn't square when I used a royal blue cottolin, either. Rats!

My first "Norse Kitchen" towel using 10/2 perle cotton as pattern weft.

I don't know how it goes for you, but it is near agony when my weaving goes wrong. For days I pondered the puzzle -- how do I make this work?

There were a few other issues with this draft that really bugged me. I knew for certain I could not continue weaving as it was. How would I ever meet my Christmas deadline?

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.