The navy blue tea towels are off the loom and the yellow ones have already gone to their new owner. The red tea towels have had their final product photos taken and are almost ready to go up in our Etsy store.
Now I’m trying to find something to put on the loom. All week I’ve taken out different bins of yarns to see if anything leaps up and grabs me. So far nothing has inspired me, maybe it’s the grey sky.
After I finished weaving the 4 tea towels that are fulfilling a commission, these four were woven in golden yellow. I can now turn to the 2/8 cotton stash for the last 2 tea towels on the navy blue warp. There is so much colour to choose from blues and teals, pinks and purples or the oranges, reds and greens.
I went for the bright red for the last 2 tea towels. It is a classic colour combination for a reason and deservedly so; its such a lovely combination.
The 6 tea towels are finally off the loom and they make a satisfying pile. I cut them into pairs and using the sewing machine stabilize the raw edges before tossing them into the washing machine and dryer. I did put the red tea towels in a separate wash load just in case the red dye decided to run a bit.
I spent all day yesterday ironing! First I like to press the tea towels in the steam press before cutting them apart and pressing up the hems.
Then I use a metal ruler and an iron to press up the hems, being careful not to burn my fingers on the hot metal of the ruler. I pin the hem in place and they are ready to be hand sewn.
Here is the stack ready to be sewn.
Final Garden Photo is frost. Everything this morning looks like it has been flocked with a thick layer of white. The black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus) in the back is beautifully outlined.
But there are hints that spring is close, the hoop daffodils (Narcissus bulbocodium 'Arctic Bells') in the foreground are almost ready to bloom and in the back in a small pile of crocus that are just peeking out.
The greenhouse is also thickly coated in frost but as the sun climbs in the sky it hits the edge and starts to clear the glass. There are already seeds started in the greenhouse, sweet peas, primroses and hellebore's. They like a long and cold start before becoming seedlings.
The bright happy tea towels are off the loom and ready to hem. I have worked on creating this pattern for some time and have in the past woven a very similar pattern without issue.
My goal this time was to create a very colourful, uplifting tea towel that was really thirsty and would really hold water well. So, I decided to change the sett on the weave.
I chose pink, magenta, blue and aqua green for the warp colours.
I decided to sett the tea towels at 20 epi as this has been recommended on several recent articles I have read with the goal to enhance the functionality of the tea towel while preserving the weave. Sometimes a fabric that is woven too closely will be a little water resistant.
Here is a photo of the tea towel on the loom and it shows distinct diamonds with both warp wise and weft wise floats. A lovely pattern that gives a lot of surface interest when interacting with colours.
After machine washing and drying I took the tea towels to ‘McSteamy’ my pressing machine and gave them a light press.
To press anything with length you have to accordion it behind the plate and press it while moving forward. I thought that this was a pretty cool photo.
Then I fold up the hem 5 cm and give it a second quick press.
Here are the tea towels all ready for hand hemming, but where did the lovely diamond pattern go? I think that the looser sett allowed the weft threads to move around and consequently the pattern has been hidden, drat!
I think that this is a beautiful thirsty tea towel that will function well and brighten up any kitchen, but since I intend to create and sell the PDF pattern on Etsy I will be reweaving these tea towels with a closer sett and few more modifications to ensure that the pattern holds firm after washing.
I have started knitting a new pullover from Drops Design 180-22. This is a top down stranded knit pullover and so far, so good. Here is what it should look like when finished.
It’s January, so it must be tea towels; that seems to be our slogan here at Dust Bunnies. As I was trying to figure out what tea towel pattern I wanted to do, I got a commission for 4 tea towels. The colours are navy blue and yellow. In the picture you can see that the tops of the tubes have been coloured. When we get a new order of 2/8 cotton, we colour the tubes so that we can keep the different dye lots separated. The bottom tube of navy is a slightly different colour and in the dark days of winter it could have been hard to notice when pulling the warp, so I'm glad I caught it.
The pattern for the tea towels is a point twill on 12 shafts, the pattern makes lovely shapes in the heddles. It is one that we’ve done before in 2018 and 2020.
So far the hardest part of these tea towels is the actual weaving, this is the first attempt and I didn’t beat the weft hard enough and the left edge is a mouse nibbled mess; so I pulled out the 5 inches that I have woven and began again.
The second attempt is much better. I’m having to do a double beat to pack the weft in nicely and the pattern is showing up much crisper. I also found that my hanging selvages had uneven weights, I had 7 pennies on the left and 10 pennies on the right and when I added the three extra pennies to the left my mouse nibbled edge magically disappeared. Who knew it made such a difference?
I’ve finished one towel and I’m starting on the second out of the four yellow tea towels. I’ve put on enough warp for 6 towels and I’m already thinking about what colours can I use for the last two towels!
We’ve had a very cold spell and then a big dump of snow so the garden is looking a little beat up. There are no promising hints of green shoots showing today but by next week there could be as we are well above freezing. Still, I'm longing for days when the sky isn't dull grey and fog isn't our constant companion.
I have a history of weaving tea towels in January. It gives me a chance to focus on my posture at the loom while creating something beautiful. This year is no exception so I chose a fairly straightforward pattern that I have modified significantly.
I pulled a warp in 2/8 cotton using some really bright and happy colours, pink, green, blue and magenta. I wanted to work with summer colours while we are in the middle of Vancouver Islands greyest months.
I chose my pattern and then proceeded to make fairly bold stripes. When I do this I work only half of the pattern and then use PCW Fibreworks to mirror the first half. This makes sure that the placement of stripes is even across the fabric. I let the program do the work for me.
I made the warp, which was a tad painful due to all of the colour changes and popped it on the loom. Threading the warp was my next step and then tying on went well.
I chose to weave the first tea towel with navy weft and it wasn’t very far along that I noticed something amiss. There was a 9 thread float dead centre of my warp!
I really didn’t want to pull the entire warp off the loom, so I cut out what I had woven and at this point I decided I didn’t like the navy weft.
I un-sleyed half of the reed, up to centre where the error was and added two string heddles to the warp. I hung these two floating warp threads and, Bob’s your uncle, I’m ready to move forward.
While I was looking on the computer to find the error, I also decided to change up the treadling and I’m very pleased with the change, so a new treadling and a new weft colour; I guess my mistake was meant to be!
I’m still really enjoying knitting hats at the moment and this is my very first original pattern. It hasn’t been blocked yet, but I think its a winner.
It is the New Year and time for a fresh start. I dropped off writing for the blog and I’ve missed it. I like having a written record of my weaving and it is surprizing how much I refer back to the blog. It may be a little old fashioned to write a blog but I do really enjoy doing photo essays about weaving.
But first the clean sweep part, I’m going to tidy up the blog and give a recap of the projects that have been done since August. The last blog by me was about the Fleur de Lys scarf, which was 2/8 Tencel in white and blue with 2/30 cotton. I actually unwove the scarf and redid the motif, it’s longer and more ornate looking, the pattern is Diversified Plain Weave. The finished scarf was lovely and has already sold.
In September I did a set of six tea towels in 2/8 cotton with a white warp and 2 towels each in lavender, red and turquoise. They are woven in a lovely twill on 11 shafts that makes a charming round motif.
We had a lovely long fall this year, with temps into the high 20’s into October which is really unusual. We were able to grab this bonus time and we painted the fence, it was a lot of fence as we are on a corner. We picked a lovely dark chocolate brown, it really makes the plants pop.
