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. ;-)

Loomiversary

I quietly celebreated the one year Loomiversary last weekend.  One year since Farmor's loom made its great journey here.  If you haven't figured it out already...I LOVE this loom.  I'm still giddy each time I plan a project, prep the loom, pull up the bench and start weaving.  I've always loved texture, fibers and yarn...I took to knitting pretty quickly.  Remember those test they gave us in school to see where our strenths are....mechanical reasoning was always one of my highest.  Weaving is a lot like that.  The entire process is so fun and it brings me crazy amounts of joy.  I found my it, my thing, my passion.  That's a pretty cool feeling.  ;-)

Here is the warping mill.  This thing is amazing!  Warping 10 yards of warp is a dream.  So much faster and easier than the warping board.

And here's my poor man's spool rack.  I need to come up with something better, but those lonely knitting needles were happy to finally see a little bit of action.  

 Here is Weaving Walter.  He likes to "help" as much as he can.  He's helping by.....flattening the fabric for me!

 Speaking of fabric, weaving rugs takes a lot of fabric.  Love those sheet donations that have been coming in!  I have boxes of old upholstery samples that I have been hoarding for years.  So, I tried stitching a bunch of them together to make a giganitic loop, cut them right up with my rotary cutter and made this heap of mess.

 But score!  Look at that pretty little fabric ball!  Excited to try that out in a rug.

 Here's some fabric stretchd out on my arm.  It's all been cut with rotarty cutter, up to the last 2 inches on top.  Now I cut them apart with my scissor and they fall to a heap on the floor.

 Wind them all up and look at those!  AND check out the two fabric donations that came in at the PERFECT time!

 Again, Weaving Walter.  He insisted there was room for him too in the loom while I was threading all those heddles.

 Here he is about 15 minutes later.  You know...the dog needs to stretch out for maximum napping enjoyment.  He's snoring here...you can almost hear him, can't you?

 And here's a little peak at those fabric scraps....EEEEKKKK!!!!  I am so in love!

 Oh, yes...and more of my helper.

So, happy 1st Loomiversary my Dear Loom!  I am SO glad you are here!  XOXO

Finished Rugs

 The three rugs are off the loom, washed and finished.  I learned a ton but I'm super happy with how they turned out.  I had no idea how far fabric would get me...turns out not very far!  On my first rug I had to add in the greens or it would have been a very, very short rug.  But I like how it turned out!  This one I wove a header in the warp and hemmed instead of having fringe.

This was the 2nd one and I played around with different fabrics - an old fabric shower curtain, fabric scraps and upholstery scraps.  Again, fabric is used up pretty quickly - the rug shrinks in size once tension is released and taken off the loom and again once it's washed due to the cotton warp shrinking.  It's normal and tightens the rug...but I'm still always surprised how much cottom shrinks.

 I forgot to weave a header on this one - I think I was so excited to get started.  So, I had to tie the knots right next to the woven fabric, which tends to unravel a bit.  I won't forget a header again.  ;-)

And here is #3.  I learned a lot by this rug and this one is the best.  The carrys on the side of fabric are much better and more even.  The header used before the ends make it crisp looking.  I did find the cotton warp does fray a bit, so in the future I may stick to hemming or twisting the fringe.  I didn't allow for enough fringe to twist at this point, so I'll just leave as is.  Apparently the fringes wear out quickly on these kinds of rugs.

 And look who photo bombed!  

I think he's saying, "Not mine?"

Rugs #2 and #3

So I'm moving along and finished rug #2.  It's a pretty fabulous green -- very excited about this one.  I'm very interested to see how it washes up as I used a fabric shower curtain, some cotton

fabric, and some upholstry fabric scraps.

 Dot has been loving the sewing machine and making her own bags.  Melts my heart.

 And I have my constant buddy while I weave.  He likes to be close...sometimes too close.  ;-)

And here he has pulled out a fabric ball.  I can just see the confusion....but it's a BALL!  Why can't I play with it???

 Here is my first fabric donation.  Duvet covers from Denmark!  Fun, huh?  I'm using it for #3 and guessing a little girl who likes to sew may claim it for her room.

 That's a whole lotta pink!  ;-)

I have some donations coming in of sheets that I'm very excited about. But it takes a lot of fabric to make a rug, so a friendly reminder to all -- please save your old bed sheets for me.  Also, shirts with cool patterns are great too - the uglier often the better!  ;-)