Towel Bonanza



Around Christmas, Not 2 Square Weavers seem to be finishing up on towel warps.  Why - because they make such good gifts.  One size fits all and the amazing variety of choices is just so much fun to weave. 

At our December meeting, we held true to our usual offerings.  The green and purple towel below was woven by Eileen.  It is a two block broken twill design.  The warp and weft are 10/2 mercerized cotton and the towel is very light weight - although the sett was 32 epi.  Eileen thought it too "whimpy" but most of us thought it was great for drying glassware or other delicate items.  Gorgeous colors.  We will have to break out the McMorran Yarn Balance to test the yd/lb of her yarns from Lunatic Fringe and compare them to other 10/2 mercerized cottons we have.

Marcy had finished another warp on this two block twill threading.  She has found the joys of tying on to an old warp and weaving another colorway.  This time the towel warp was a burnt orange and gray.  Look at what happened when she used a white weft and then a navy weft.  The glory of neutrals and the geometric design just sings in both of these towels.  This pattern has been featured here before and is from Strickler's book on 8 shaft weaving.  The draft is #228 if you happen to own the book.  

 Marcy had also been busy on the loom weaving overshot runners. There was some warp left over and she did this striped beauty, and changed around the overshot motifs.  Great idea and a good use for the end of that warp.

 

 Mardi told a story as she showed us her towels woven on her old Leclerc loom.  She said she had always had problems with getting even tension across the whole warp.  When she went to the Vavstuga school a few months ago, she asked the instructors there to give her advice. Their answer was to use a temple.  Mardi warped up the loom, and woven this stunning stripe and plaid set.  The temple helped tremendously and her selvedges are perfect.  What a great feeling to have conquered this common weaving problem.

Marjorie brought in some woven items from several years ago, including this gorgeous hemstitched towel.  Love the color and the detail on this one.  The towel also has some huck patterning.

 

 Sue V. went to the Weaver's School on Whidbey Island this past spring.  Sue hasn't been weaving recently, and wanted to get her weaving mojo back so she took the beginning class.  The first photo is of the sample she wove in class with the huck lace design and a frame of stripes and plaid.

So Sue took inspiration from her woven sample and designed a towel warp specifically for a husband who doesn't always make sure his hands are perfectly clean when he uses the towel.  The towels are a beautiful red clay color - just like the soil here in Nevada County.  Sue used the same framing stripes, a huck design and made the towels just a bit longer than usual so that they hang around the handle of her refrigerator.  Stunning towels - and one would never know if a bit of red clay smudge got on them or not!

There's more to show from this meeting, so stay tuned for part two of our December meeting show and tell



What's on Our Looms

Several of our members have been working on their looms,  Jackie wove a very geometric chenille scarf.  The fringe turned out to be very interesting.

Jackie's Scarf

Jackie's Scarf - detail

Jackie also wove a rag rug.

Jackie's rug

Betsy wove a scarf using 8/2 tencel.  The design is an 8-shaft, M's & W' design, sett at 24 epi.

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Betsy's Scarf

Betsy's Scarf - detail

Diana wove a set of five towels. The design was polychrome (reds) crackle. The design was from Handwoven, Sept./Oct. 2016, pg. 46.  There were nine different colors in warp and three rotating colors in weft.  Each towel has different colors in weft, although they all came out looking sort of alike.  Diana used both 8/2 and 10/2 cottons, sett at 24 epi.  She felt it was a good project for using up a lot of reddish yarns.  

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Diana's Towels

Marjorie shared two pieces of yardage that were woven several years ago and meant to be pillowcases.  She found that they were too narrow for that purpose once completed. Both pieces used 100 percent cotton, in a lace pattern - huck- Marjorie thinks.

Marjorie's Yardage

Ingrid shared a scarf she wove using Malabrigo yarn.  Arroyo for the warp and Rios for the weft.  The design is an 8-shaft advancing twill woven with a 3-1-2-2 twill tie up.  This is one of two she hopes to weave from the same warp.

All in all, lots of interesting things being woven this month.