Kitchen Towels

I have to admit, I wasn't too excited to weave towels.  It's a lot of work for something you wipe your hands on.  BUT, there are tons of towel weavers out there and the patterns and designs are so pretty.  Plus, I'm still learning so I'm trying a little of everything to see what I like.  And I found out that they really are as much fun as everyone in the weaving world has said!  Plus, I got to try out this groovy software for colorwork.  Since I'd never done striping quite like this before, I really needed to map it out mathematically since I was designing it on my own (eeek, math, yuck - but not too bad since the program does much of the work for you) so I used this nifty program.  So, I got a "snapshot" of what the towels could look like even before I started to weave.  Neat, huh???

 So once I had my plan, I was ready to start the warp threads - 395 threads, all 6 yards long.

 Telling you, Farmor's warping mill is AMAZING!!!!!!  Had that all done in a jiff!

 That striping is just exciting!

 Off the warping mill and pre- reeding the threads - this gets it spaced properly in the reed.

 Winding on the back beam. I actually did it ALL by myself!  My weaving helper, Hubs, has always helped me wind the warp on, but I found a nifty video that showed me how to handle all the warp, creating tension and wind on while inserting all those little sticks between the layers.  Pretty awesome to have done it all by myself!

 Then comes threading the heddles.  Each of the 395 threads has to go through an "eye" of a heddle in the correct order to create the desired pattern.  This is a good time to zone out to some tunes, a book on cd, or listen to a wee-one playing Simon Says.

 Finally, it's all threading and tied on to the front beam.  Weeeeeee -- let the shuttle fly!  I like how you can see my Farmor's name written in this shuttle.  :-)

I did several variations of a Bird's Eye Twill - the design is changed by changing the order of the treddles -- the pedals below which are what lower the particular shafts the threads are threaded thru.  

 Just look at that!  That's cloth people - cloth that didn't exist before! When I see this cloth forming before my eyes, I almost feel like I have magical powers.  Yup.  Magical-weaving-powers...like a super hero.  I know you are laughing at me...but I'm okay with it, 'cause I could weave my own cape if I needed to!  Haha!  ;-)

 Gotta say, I was pretty pumped with how even my selvedges are!  YAY!

 And here they are!  All 5 (and a half) of them....I was supposed to have 6 towels - don't ask...that experience wasn't very magical or super hero-like.  

 They ended up a little smaller than I had planned. Nothing wrong with them, but just another learning opportunity for how certain yarns work - stretch and SHRINK!  They make good towels in the kitchen and powder room.  And yes, they are to be used!  No sense on making something just to have it sit perfectly in a drawer.  

My loom sits empty now, but a new order for yarn goes out tonight!  Stay tuned!

Christmas Rugs!

Here are four rugs that I got out of my 9 yards of brown warp.  Super happy with how they all turned out.  Three were given as Christmas gifts and I sure had to motor to get them done in time!  Sure, I looked all cool and calm, but had my hubs not had some time off of work so I could weave like a machine and ignore my family for a couple days, we would have been standing around the loom at Christmas and I'd be saying, "Well, I can't really wrap your gift....'cause it's still on the loom.....but...but...I love you!"  ;-)  Funny how Christmas tends to sneak up on you...which is really kind of silly because it's always the same date, and you KNOW you'll get behind...yet it still happens.  But ANYWAY!  Let's talk rugs!

These were fun!  I bought some drapes on my online garage sale.  It was a ton of fabric for not much cash.  I had originally purchased them thinking that I could perhaps use the fabric to repurpose into some new drapes...but, I just couldn't get past the old lady vibe...so snip, snip!  They turned into rags.  Funny, tho...as I was cutting them apart, I found out the fabric for the drapes were Ralph Lauren.  Oh yah....I don't use just any ordinary rags, they've gotta be Ralph Lauren.  Haha!

Here's some Swedish Rosepath design. I love, love, love this type of design.

 And some more Rosepath...

 And some Walter for you....that pile of fabric looked like a pretty nice bed!

 This is what it looks like when it comes off the loom....one really long, connected rug.  It's always a cool feeling to lay it all out like this...even tho you pretty much know what it's going to look like, it's fun to finally see it all flat and stretched out.  And yes, Walter doing his job making sure the rugs don't blow away...or something.  ;-)

 Fun to work with these colors.  Most of the fabric was cotton fabric with the solid colors being sheet donations.

 Here's the Ralph Lauren fabric with the solid color cotton fabric in Rosepath.

 And Walter....because he's just so cute!

 This one went to my inlaws...looks pretty nice in their front entry.

This one is "hit or miss"...great way to use up small amount of scraps or when there is small amount of warp left on loom.

I'm a big fan of twisting the ends.  It's time consuming, but easily done while watching a movie.  Apparently it helps keep the fringes longer...they are often the first thing to wear out in a rag rug.

 And here is a new one.  9 yards of grey warp on this one.  I did my first ever tie-on -- I tied the ends of my new warp to the ends of the old (brown) warp and wound the warp on that way.  It's supposed to save a lot of time because you don't have to rethread everything all over again.  Now, had you not made an error like I did, I can see where it would be very fast and efficient if you are doing the same design structure again.  However, I made that no good, horrible oops and had quite the mess on my hands.  But, after a little hair pulling, some minor swearing, and perhaps a few tears, I got it all untangled and up and running.  I have had a lot of "learning opportunities" and some things I most certainly will never, ever! make that kind of oops again.  ;-)  

This grey and yellow are from sheets -- love the colors!  The white has grey wavey stripes so it gets that little speckled look.  I only have one fitted sheet of the yellow so I have to use that precious amount carefully.  I have some other sheets that are white, grey and red striped so those will go for rug #2 in some design.  Not yet sure how I will use the rest of the warp yet. 

 So there you have the latest on the loom. ;-)