Purple Striped Tea Towels

In the beginning of the year we are always drawn to tea towels.  This year I wanted to do lively coloured and thick stripes.  I was really drawn to the purples and a lovely lime green to highlight the colours.

I found a charming pattern on Handweaving.net that forms little boxes.  The pattern is a 3/1 turned twill also known as a drall.

The stripes are an inch wide and there are three boxes per stripe which makes them look even wider.  The weft for the tea towels is a lovely shade of blue from Brassards called Denim.

I put on 7 yards of warp for 6 tea towels 36 inches long.  At the end of the warp I had 26 inches left, so minus 12 inches for loom waste, I had 14 inches left over.

I came up with a great idea, bookmarks!  I tried out a couple of colours of 2/8 cotton but they were matte and boring.

So I tried some 2/8 Tencel in black and two navies, they had shine and were exciting.  So I had found my weft for the bookmarks.

I decided to only use some of the stripes.  And here is where I made the mistake; I decided to cut out the warp stripes that I wasn’t going to use.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  The tension on the warp went wild and I had to finish cutting the entire warp off.  Here is the chained off warp looking sad, maybe I will do some temari balls with it.

Here are the finished tea towels.  They look fresh and cheerful.  They remind me of the first spring flowers, crocuses.  For Sale.

One thing about the tea towels is that the lime green stripe doesn’t look green anymore.  The purple stripes and navy weft has pulled the green colour from the stripe and now it looks yellow.  I still think that they look great, but not quite what I had intended.

Final Garden Shot is Bleeding Heart.  I wish I had a crocus picture but a bunny dug the bulbs up and ate them!

Rosy Red Paper Spots Lace Runners

Back in December when Mum was doing her three golden huck lace diamond runners and I did some lovely rosy red lace runners.  I used a stunning cone of 2/10 cotton in a colour called Zinnia, which we bought from Susan at Thrums.  It's always nice to drive 'up island' to see her.

Looking through our lace drafts I found a lovely pattern in paper spots or dropped tabby lace, which Mum had published in Handwoven Magazine.  I like to take of picture of the border so I can remember how to end the runner.  There is nothing worse than getting to the end of the runner and trying to remember what you wove for the border.

After taking the photo I noticed a small lump on the front with further check found a large snarl on the back.  So I got to unweave a couple of inches.

The pattern is wonderful large circles of lace highlighted by a trellis.  It was a simple treadling and a joy to weave so the runner wove up quite quickly.

I am always delighted when I finish weaving the runner (or scarf or whatever) and the pirn finishes at the same time!

I changed the pattern a little for the second runner instead of circles there are long ovals of lace highlighted by a trellis.

After washing the runners the lace does what it does and puckers the runner, this is the scary stage when you wonder if it will ever iron flat.

I usually use a steam press to flatten the final piece but with lace you need to push the puckers out with an iron.  It is amazing how the lace changes.

I then used the steam press for the final pressing of the table runners.  Here is the finished runner with the circles.  For Sale.

Here is the finished runner with the long ovals.  The runners are quite stunning and the warm brick red is a lovely colour.  For Sale.

Final Garden Shot is of some bulbs just popping up from the garden, I am not sure what they are I have to wait for them to bloom.  The trellis is to stop the deer from eating the tender tips.