Dishtowel Specs

Left pic - unwashed 13.75" x 31"

Right pic - machine washed and dried 9.75" x 26.5"

Materials 6/2 cotton - beige

4/2 cotton - red

15 epi reed / 4 shaft waffle pattern - Mastering Weave Structures

The waffles are deep, although small in structure, the cotton is soft and absorbent. Should use a finer yarn for the hems they turn out a bit bulky after the wash.

Finished Towels

I finished up four towels last night, with about a yard of loom waste on the back beam.

The one hemmed towel is 13.75" x 31" a bit on the longish side but I expect it to shrink a bit.

Hand hemming wasn't really all that bad, just a bit more time consuming. I have three great towel to keep and one to give to a friend's hubby that often cooks us lunch and delivers to work, it's always a wonderful treat when he show up with goodies for us.

I loved working on the towels and figure that I can get some done for next Christmas now that I have the experience of the first set. I must admit that next time I will work with shorter warp, I tend to wrap my warping board on the long side always fearing that I won't have enough for loom waste, but now I know that I can warp less and not have the tangle issues I had with this cotton. I also have learned that if I make two or three warps at once, I won't have any lapse time between dressing my loom and weaving. If anything, I am learning and that's a really great feeling.

Mr. Deepend has a car show this weekend (he's won 1st place 3 years running hoping for the 4th) this means, I have a free Saturday to play with yarn! I'm excited with the ideas of spending the day at the loom.

Tubular!

As I was weaving along on the dishtowels (I'm on the third one in red) I needed to steal an idea from my mom's sewing room. She has, for as long as I can remember always tied scrap material to the neck of her sewing machine to put in the pins. As I strapped my loom with my improvised pin cushion I found that this material was tubular, this is the scarf warp that I sleyed two strands per dent. I was surprised and baffled, why did this happen, I know the how but why?? Some weaver's need to clue me in on the why, it's neat, but I need some answers. I research through some books but no answers.

:0(

Speaking of the warp for the scarf I did finish it before Christmas but declined to gift it. The scarf's edges are how do I put this delicately..... well honesty, they look like crap, there really is no way of masking my disappointment with it, I threw it in the closet only to bring it out today to snap a sad ass picture of the craptastic looking scarf edges. The weave itself looks good, I like the structure, which I will try again at some point, but the edges arrrrgggghhh.

Needless to say I need to make a replacement scarf for my SIL, that's the next project in queue for the loom.

new season, new weaving

Thank you all for the well wishes! I am doing great and thank God can breathe with ease . I've been off work since December 23 and have been resting, knitting and weaving. Nothing like a little R&R to get your batteries charged and ready to start a new season.

Since I had some time off I warped my loom, no easy feat this time around the warp did not behave well and I wound up cutting 1/4 the chain off the loom ( I warped back to front). Once the cotton decided to untangle and get it's act together I threaded the heddles and tied up the lamms for some cotton dishtowels in waffle weave. I got the pattern from the book Mastering Weave Structures that I checked out of the library, very interesting book with a ton of information.

I'm working with 6/2 cotton in beige and 4/2 cotton in red, 15 dpi reed, 4 shaft waffle weave structure. I wove about 7" and decided to put in a 2" stripe as an accent. I like a nice big towel for the kitchen and have decided that these will be 34" with 2" seams, once I wash it I'll figure out how much it will shrink. (need to measure width on the loom and off)

Blogger thought you guys needed some head twists so this one's sideways, but its a close up of the weave structure. I've woven about 18" and think it's going really quickly so I may be able to get these done this week.

Knitting Up a Storm

I'm up to my dish pan hands in knitted dish towels this is the latest pattern Clover Tweed Dishcloth. I loved the pattern and thought it would be great for my SIL, since her kitchen is all ocean inspired. I have exactly three more to go and I'll be finished with the knitting of the these for Christmas, whew I can't wait after a while knitting these get tedious although they are a great knit for Knit Nite, I don't need to think and I can gab all nite without making any mistakes.

This, on the other hand is my sweater it's the February Lady Sweater pattern which I fell in love with in August. I purchased Universal Yarn LP in WW in 75% acrylic 25% wool, I using my Harmony needles with a 60" cable. I have to say it is really soft and squishy yarn I love the feel of it as I knit, I also appreciate the long print of the colors they almost get around the entire sweater before a color change happens. This is my first top down raglan sweater and it's going well. I learned to make button holes from cable cast on instead of the usual YO, which was really interesting and a new technique. Best of all I love the colors they are just what I would wear and I hope that there will be some kind of winter this year so that I could get some use out of the sweater.I don't have any weaving pics because well it looks the same only with more yardage, so I won't bore you guys with it. I hope to finish sometime this weekend and start to do the embroidering, I guess then the pics will be worth taking.

Long Weekends Rock!!

What do you get when you place a motivated weaver, a loom and uninterrupted weaving time? Well in my case I love, love, did I say love long weekends, because I get to start and finish a project. I warped my RH with a color exploration from Plain Weave is Anything But Plain, by Leslie Voiers, but I read the draft wrong and warp two end per instead of one and I added and extra color so I did mine with four instead of three. I really love the results and plan to recreate it with the right amount of warp for a scarf.

I hand hemmed instead of machine hemming, although the process is slower it was relaxing. I had extra warp and I wanted to experiment with the new Textures and Patterns book so I used the 5/1 pickup for window panes and used the remainder of my yarn that was on the shuttles, I made a mistake and missed one of the pick-up, leaving a extra long warp shot, so I need to practice, but I'm confident I'll turn it out and have some lovely towels to go with the mats.

I'm warping for a few more kitchen towel, but in a different sequence of solid color blocks to see if I get more definition on the patterns, as I think the pick-up's get lost in the variations. I'll also experiment with different pick up's and test how they look, that should be fun, I'll get towels, practice, and samples all in one shot.

I also got to snap a pic of the baby hat that I finished, here it is along with the cardi, which are now on their way to South Carolina. I decorated the hat with a pink bow and an ever so cute lady bug button, just perfect for a little girl.

DISHTOWELS

I washed the dishtowel and they measured 12" x 21" some shrink but not much, and since the pic before was so drab looking I took another one. As Leigh commented this is a great way to use up left over cotton yarn, and it's a useful item. I think my SIL will like her table runner and towels, come to think of it I may just make some for myself (hehe). Thank you all for the well wishes, as the old phrase goes "and this too shall pass".

PASSING OF THE TORCH

Today I relinquished my Yahoo group Boardknitters, although I have not been very active within the group for a while I feel as if I release it in to the wild, sort of mixed feelings there. I gave it to Graciela, who is more than capable and has been a great moderator for me. Congrats Graciela, on your new position!!!! I feel kinda free also, as if there is no responsibility any more to supervise, e-spank, correct, update etc... the group, it's wonderfully freeing. I stayed on as a member and will be visiting often.


On to other news I will be having surgery next Thursday Dec 6, 2007 for Endometrial Balloon Ablation you can get the particulars if you like on the link, so I will be out of commission so to speak for a few days.


And since this is a creative blog these are the dish towels I've been working on. This is were you can get the stitch. Since it was easy enough for me to learn I started knitting these when I went on vacation. and am about to finish the second one, I would have finished them on the trip but I ran out of yarn and refused to buy more since I have a cone at home. Yeah, it sounds kinda cheap but I really don't need anymore white cotton Peaches and Cream Yarn, since I need to get rid of what I currently own so I can buy other yarn, I know, I know--- it's a vicious cycle, but thank God you guy get me, everyone else thinks I'm nuts. Back to the dish towelsfor the white towel I cast on 50 stitches Row 1 (rs) knit, Row 2 (ws) knit one row then I started the pattern stitch for the next 8 rows, then I switch to the color yarn I used, Earthtone Color 172 and continued the stitch pattern for 18 rows, switch to the white and pattern stitch for 50 rows, switch color pattern stitch for 18 rows, switch color pattern stitch for the next 8 rows, then knit (rs) knit (ws) and bind off. The finished towel is 12" x 25" pre- wash, I'll let you know how much it shrinks. I don't know if I wrote the pattern correctly, since this is the first ever needle knit pattern I've written so if there are any mistakes please let me know. ;o)