This is scarf number One which was woven exactly as I created the pattern….I dyed it with salmon on side one and fuscia on side two. This one had the greatest number of pattern threads per inch, so the greatest amount of pleating.
You can see that the each side of the scarf is unique.
Scarf number Two was dyed in jade green and purple stripes. It was painted the same on both sides and had the fewest number of pattern threads per inch, consequently the least amount of pleats.
Although it looks as if there is texture, the weave is smooth. This is really all about colour.
I think that number Three is my all over favourite; it will just look great with denim. I have dyed this combination before, but it looks very different from the first scarf which had a twill ground and this one has a tabby ground. Scarves three and four have pleating in the mid range.
The scarf was painted jade green on one side and royal blue on the other, so very lovely..and completely different looking on each side.
This one is hot, hot, hot….just like an Okanagan summer! Scarf number Four was painted orange on both sides and then fuscia was dropped randomly on top. It is stunning and the photo just doesn’t do it justice, my camera just didn't capture the amazing colour at all well. The Procion MX mix that I used on each of the scarves was for medium value, but they still came out very bright and rich.On a completely different note, I live in a rural area of British Columbia and our water supply is from a high plateau lake. This makes our water prone to spring turbidity(dirt) due to run off, and fall staining as the leaves fall into the lake and leach out their colour.
The end result is that white clothing in my neck of the woods is iffy at best. I recently went shopping for a bra and found a smokin’ deal on my favourite brand, but it is white – drat! 
Not any more! The Shibori dye day gave me a great dark purple left over and I was looking forward to a bright purple bra, but after rinsing it came out this stunning pink/lilac! I'm happy anyway!
For added interest, as the body of the scarf is only plain weave, we designed a three colour succession. We pulled out all the Tencel and started trying out different colour combinations; some were safe like a blue gradation and others like the one that I chose were a little out there; Lemon to Gold to Lime. The colours are wonderful together and are really exciting.
I did have some trouble picking a weft colour, the original idea was to use black but against the lemon it looked too spotty. I tried dark grey, light grey, even burgundy and the one that worked was taupe! It made all the colours look fantastic and yet unified them.
The Huck circles are placed so they are only in one colour, but the stripes are not equal so the circles are interestingly spaced. The scarf is all about the Huck circles and the more attention that they get for being unexpected the better. Here is a close up of the Huck circle on the loom.
Here is the same circle after is has been washed and only lightly pressed, it will get its final pressing with McSteamy when there is some other stuff to be pressed. Also there wasn’t enough time before the guild meeting and I really wanted to bring it for Show and Tell!
I think that this scarf was meant to be because when I went to the bead bin there were all three colours in just the right sized beads, so I was able to echo the stripes with the beading! I even added little seed beads in the cup of the twisted fringe.
All and all this scarf was a pleasure, seeing the colours mix and blend together was just magical. Add the always mind blowing experience of having circles appear out of straight lines! I would totally do this pattern again and I may, it is going to be presented at the guild Sheep to Shawl planning meeting and I have been asked to be the weaver again this year! So I could be revisiting this pattern in a couple of months and turning it into a shawl.
On the left is my first scarf, on this one I followed my pattern exactly. I wove a triple repeat of every pattern sequence thread separated by four tabby ground picks. This will give me a very furrowed and pleated design, hopefully! On the right is scarf number two, this scarf was woven with only one pattern thread sequence separated by 10 ground picks. This should give a similar overall effect, but with far less furrowing and will allow more colour to seep into the scarf. 
I have already twizzled the fringes for both scarves and have pulled and tied the pattern threads. Scarf one is pulled slightly tighter than scarf two.
When I pulled the scarves I did an overhand knot on the right side and then pulled the left side to the desired tightness. Then I secured it with a shoe lace knot and trimmed the edges. I’ve found that if I leave the pattern threads too long it interferes with the painting of the scarves. At this point I’m planning on painting each side of the scarf a different colour.
This is scarf number three off the loom and waiting for the fringe to be twisted. This scarf was woven with a double pattern thread sequence separated by four ground threads and then ten ground threads before the next sequence. This scarf should come in right between the other two both in patterning and in ridging. Well that’s the plan anyway! 
This another photo of scarf numbe two, I really reduced the number of pattern threads, to the point that you can no longer see the twill progression. I’m working on scarf number 4 and it will show the twill progression again and I will show you it on my next blog when they are all nicely dyed and finished – that’s that part that I’m looking forward to! 
So for the next scarf I came up with the idea to do a pointed end to the scarf, it would add interest and as an added benefit it would look different from the rest of the scarves. It looks good but it didn’t have any razzle dazzle so my Mum came up with the idea of adding a tassel to the ends.
I had never made a tassel before so after some internet sleuthing I came up with this method. The threads are wrapped around a piece of cardboard folded in half. I built the two tassels at the same time so they would be the same as I was using four or five different threads in differing amounts, it could be hard to keep track. I used a mixture of cotton, Tencel, Orlec and shiny copper in different thickness and shades of brown and black. After the desired thickness is reached the loop is cut in half, the bottom of the cardboard, where the two pieces meet is where to cut. A piece of thread is then wrapped in the centre of the bundle and is knotted into place. The bundle is folded in half and about half an inch from the top it is wrapped to hold the halves together. The ends of the tassel may need to be trimmed but that is it, really easy and fun! 
Here is the brown and variegated scarf, it is very subtle but is really pretty, and oh so very soft.
The brown and black scarf is exciting as there are little black dots that seem to magically appear, very nifty!
I really like these scarves and I am already planning on doing some more! 
The Stainless Steel Tea Towels are off the loom and have been hand hemmed. I really like this pattern, it was easy to thread and a delight to weave, now I wish I had put on more than 7 yards.
I ended up weaving 3 tea towels with black weft, 1 with white weft, 1 with light grey weft and 1 with red weft. 
The red weft is completely different looking and is without a doubt my least favourite, but I had to try it! 
You can see some of the wonderful texture that this weave provided, just great for slurping up water. I will definitely be doing this pattern again, maybe in summer yellows, greens and brown, but for now I have enough tea towels….
I created this pattern using 8 shafts and 10 treadles. It is plain weave with a twill pattern that will create a strong pleated effect after finishing. This is just one pattern repeat, about 5 inches.
My warp is 2/10 natural coloured cotton. I was on a mission to use some stash, so there are two different warp threads. One is mercerized and one is not. The weft is 2/16 unmercerized cotton for the background and 2/8 Orlec for the pattern threads, which will be pulled out after dyeing.
This is how the edges look; I’ve left small loops so that I can easily pull them to create the smocked effect needed for the dyeing step. You can see the whole process 
I had some trouble with these towels, I had planned on the towels being 22 inches wide; but after winding on the warp I noticed that the outer edge fell into the loom brake and got dirty. So even though I’m supposed to have 22 weaveable inches on the Minerva loom it was too wide. I had to cut off a half inch on both sides to make it work, so they ended up 21 inches wide and 36 inches long. I also had tension problems so the back of the loom was a jumble.
Before washing I was a little concern about the towels, they didn’t seem interesting and I don’t know, just plain blah. But after washing they became magical; the white panels are full of texture and the blue stripes are a clean and sharp counterpoint.
Every towel has a series of different sized stripes as a border. Below are only two towels, the others have not been hemmed yet.
I liked the fact that each towel only took about an hour to weave, but would I do it again? Hmmmm, probably but on a wider loom!
I created this draft based upon one of Russell E. Groffs’ patterns called Linen Squares, found in 
This is the original draft which I amended quite a bit. I changed the squares to rectangles by cutting out or increasing the number of point twill repeats. I then put my colour sequence onto ½ of the total warp threads necessary and then used PCW to mirror the colour stripe and block placement. I put on 7 yards of 2/8 unmercerized cotton, sett at 24 epi. I will get 6 tea towels 22”x36” plus samples. 
Above is my first towel using white weft. It’s pretty, but lacks the impact that I was aiming for, but still a nice clean looking towel. On the iPod was Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
Now we’re talking….this is the black weft and it is exactly what I was looking for….there will be at least 2 with this weft. On the iPod was ABBA’s Voulez-Vous.
Just to make sure I give everything a try this is the light grey weft. It is lacking the impact of the black weft, but nonetheless it looks pretty darn good. On the iPod was Bond – Classified; for those who don’t know of Bond; it is modern light jazzy classical; or classical with a backbeat – just fantastic, rockin' strings!
A close up of the centre of the tea towel with the white weft shows the lovely patterns created.