More Weaving at the County Fair

 More Not 2 Square Weavers displayed their woven pieces at the Fair this month.  

Mardi entered several items starting with a beautiful baby blanket, using a gradient color scheme.

Mardi's Baby Blanket

She entered two sets of napkins - one also with a gradient color scheme.

Mardi's Napkins

Mardi's Napkins

This turned twill scarf on the left was woven with a cotton warp and a silk weft.  The pink scarf was woven with linen.

Mardi's Turned Twill Scarf

Mardi's Linen Scarf

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Mardi also entered two tea towels.

Mardi's Towel

Mardi's Towel

Karen entered a rug that she wove using shaft switching technique.

Karen's Rug

Jeanne entered a poncho that was woven using Robin Lynde's V-Shawl technique.  It's a doubleweave shawl with a V-shaped back.  

Jeanne's Poncho

She entered two sets of placemats.

Jeanne's Placemats

Jeanne's Placemats

Jeanne also entered a towel.

Jeanne's Towel

Jeanne's final entry was a Ganges Linen Scarf

Jeanne's scarf

There are more entries that will be posted soon.  

Cottolin Towels and Napkins

I hosted my first Not 2 Square group meeting this August. We gathered in my studio, a workshop addition my husband and I had built onto the back of our detached garage, where I debuted my latest project: two tea towels and ten napkins. 

The yarn and instructions were from the Organic Cottolin Tea Towels: Eight Woven Twill Towels  kit by Halcyon Yarn. I was lucky enough to win the kit at the Halcyon Yarn booth at Convergence 2018 in Reno. I chose the Peacock colorway which consisted of 4-1,550 yard tubes of 2/8 organic cotolin in peacock, teal, magenta and lime, and the pattern by Michael Patterson for Halcyon Yarn. 

I followed the warp color guide, wound an 8-yard warp and dressed my 8-shaft Baby Wolf loom at 20 epi with the threading provided, which was based on a four-thread herringbone draft. After weaving two towels I decided they looked good in my studio, but I didn’t need eight tea towels out there. What I could put to good use would be napkins. I was able to weave ten unique napkins by varying the treading and weft colors and I am pleased with the result. 

The cotolin, 60% organic cotton and 40% linen, was a little rough on the tube and shed a bit while weaving, but the finished items have a lovely hand. When washed in warm water in the washing machine, hung to dry and pressed with my 35-year-old Elna clothing press, the cotton bloomed and the linen relaxed. The fabric length was cut apart, edges stay stitched, and items hemmed by hand.  There was a 15% draw-in and shrinkage so the finished napkins were a touch over 17” x 17”. I would definitely weave with the Halcyon Yarn cottolin again.

Mary

Mary's Napkins

Mary's Towels