Spring Palette

It’s true….as soon as the fine weather starts I get a real bounce in my step and a change in my colour palette! In the fall and winter months I tend to choose deep, full, jewel tones in my weaving projects. Now that spring is all around me, the pastel palette is beckoning!

The colours I’ve chosen to use for my ‘Check’ tea towels….just scream spring! Just looking at them sitting on the mantle makes me happy!

I’ve already woven the first of the tea towels in celery green and now I’m on to towel number two in pastel blue.  Since this is a new pattern for me, I've only put on enough warp for four tea towels.

The checks are woven in 'No Tabby Overshot Check' blocks and the pattern on eight shafts is just the offset check blocks with plain weave blocks separating them. Shafts 1-4 weave the first block and shafts 5-8 weave the second block.

The check squares are in the ‘Bethlehem Star’ motif and although they appear to be rectangular right now, when the tension is removed they get quite square.

I  have extended the pattern to ten shafts so that I could have a third block which consists of plain weave for the selvedges. I made the selvedge borders fairly deep to ensure that it stabilized the differing take up between the check blocks and the plain weave blocks.

The original draft for the pattern on eight shafts is from 'The Best of Weaver's Overshot is Hot', but the treadling has changed from the publication to be 'as drawn in'.   Now hopefully my tea towels will come out looking the same!