Taco Tea Towel Wrap Up

I finally have the Taco Tea Towels off the loom and washed and dried,  and I am really, really happy with them.

The first two tea towels were woven with wefts of framboise and orange brulee and I really liked them both.   You can see them here.

I decided not to weave any two tea towels the same, so for my third tea towel I chose cerise (cherry) for the weft.  This tea towel is by far the hottest and brightest of the lot.  It is much prettier than the photo because no matter where I put it, the sun mars the true colour.

Tea towel number four was woven in honey yellow and I love the soft glow of this towel.  Because I used honey for one of the warp stripes too, the overall effect is much calmer than the others.

At this point I decided that I was going to change it up and do colour blocks.  For this tea towel I decided to go for about 3 inch blocks of honey and framboise.  I wove a 4 inch block to start and at the end so that I would have 1 inch to fold under for the hem.  This ensured that all the blocks on the ‘right’ side of the tea towel are all the same length.  I really like this tea towel but I must admit that all the stopping and starting whilst changing colours really slowed me down.

For the final tea towel I chose to continue weaving in blocks, but made each block 4 inches in width and wove 5 inch starting blocks.  By doing this I went from 12 blocks to 10 blocks.  This tea towel was woven in blocks of honey and orange brulee.

I really departed from my usual cool colours with this batch of tea towels, but now that the colour barrier has been crossed, I have a feeling more of the ‘warm’ colours are in my future!

As I mentions some time ago we painted our house this spring and went from a soft green house to a soft soft grey.  Well, against the new grey our well weathered teak two seater placed on the side passage way looked really sad.  So, we threw caution to the wind and painted it purple.....yup....purple! 

The old cushions were brown tropic themed and really looked weird with the purple, so they got a make over too and we chose to go bold and cheerful and I love it!  Gotta say, making covers for square cushions was a weebit of a challenge, but hopefully no one will inspect my corners!

The garden shot for the week is Clematis ‘Jackmanii’ peeking out from behind the much more aggressive grapes on the pergola in the back garden.

Everything but Weaving

Etsy has a new feature; videos.  I was part of the prototype group, so I got to try it out last month and now it is available to everyone on Etsy.  All of our scarves in the Etsy shop have videos, so, if you want to, go have a look.  It is really surprizing how long it took to do short 15 second videos for each of the scarves, but I think that they are going to be worth it.  It's lovely to see them outside in natural light to get a better idea of their colour and this is especially true for green scarves.  This example is one of my favorites because of the little bird in the background.

I have also been doing product photos for the new sets of tea towels and I have been trying out some different looks for the tea towels.  I am going to redo some photos for the older tea towels because I like using the large wooden bowl instead of the yellow bowl or the silver colander.  I like to have a cohesive look to the shop so some new photos are in order.

I also found that I liked to do a messy stack of the whole set of the tea towels instead of the stacking the in a fan shape.  The colours are Apple Blossom Pink, Pink Lilac, Lavender and Quince Blossom.  So the first two colours of the Spring Flowers cottolin tea towels are up and in the next couple of days the other two colours will be up.  Apple Blossom Pink and Lavender.

We are finally having some summer weather so every chance I get I’m outside.  Here are some garden pictures that I took today.

The Humming bird is hanging out in the Crocosmia 'Lucifer' (Montbretia).

We put down straw in the veg patch to keep the vegetables clean and mulched.  In this photo we have beans, cucumbers, cantaloup, zucchini, cutting celery, shiso leaves in pots, grapes and tomatillos, whew a lot is such a small space!   It has been so cold that nothing is as far along as it should be for this time of year.

This is the new extended area in the back perennial garden that I showed you earlier in the spring.  It always surprises me how fast the garden goes from ‘the plants are too small’ to ‘everything is getting too big’!

Taco Tea Towels

During 2011, I took part in a tea towel exchange and the results were so much fun. One of the tea towels I received was this symphony in warm colours.

This tea towel became my ‘go to’ cloth to wrap up warm corn tortillas on our weekly Mexican Monday, so it is associated with many, many happy memories. Now, after nine years of use wrapping up the hot off the grill tortillas, as well as the obligatory dish drying, it's a tad faded but still in wonderful condition, all soft and absorbent.  Just goes to show that investing in a handmade tea towel is well worth it!

The colours I chose for my Taco Tea Towels are from M. Brassard et fils in Quebec; Orange Fonce, Honey, Brick, Mauve and Cerise.  All are in 2/8 unmercerized cotton, which is the perfect tea towel yarn in my opinion.

The pattern I decided upon is the same pattern I used on my very first project on my Louet Spring Loom in 2008.  It is a 12 shaft pattern that has sections of 2/2 twill, basketweave and plaited twill.  I put on a warp 7 yards long to make 6 tea towels each 36 inches long.   Hmmm, when will I ever go metric....Canada went metric in 1970 and I use metrics for everything except weaving, go figure!

The weft on the first tea towel is Framboise ~ another Canadian foible in that I see framboise, I write framboise but my mind translates it to raspberry right away....ahh the joys of bilingualism.  This weft really highlights the orange plaited twill  and the 2/2 twill sections.

The weft on the second tea towel is Orange Brulee, or burnt orange, and in this tea towel the brick plaited twill sections are the star.  You can really pick up the basket weave in the mauve stripes too.

The garden shot this week is a new addition to my growing love of cone flowers in my perennial borders.  This one is Echinacea purpurea ‘Green Twister’ and what a beauty.

Tea Towels Just Keep On Rolling Off the Looms

The blue tea towels are off the loom, here they are waiting to be cut into twos and then the raw edges sewed to stabilize before going into the wash.  I machine wash and machine dry my tea towels before hemming.

I also steam press the tea towels before hemming, I think that it easier to fold up the hem.

It can be hard to choose which side is the right side.  There isn’t much difference between the two sides but with the tea towel on the right the pink stripe creates triangles which I think looks better.

It has been a cold and rainy June-uary but the last couple of days have been nice enough to sit outside and hand hem the tea towels.

I will give the tea towels one more steam pressing before I take product pictures so they can go into the shop.  Hopefully they will be available by next week.

Speaking of Etsy I’m part of a prototype group for testing videos in listings.  So I’ve been learning how to video my scarves.

Each video is only about 15 seconds long but it still seems to take a while to video each scarf!   I hope that the videos will help to show the true colour of the scarves because frankly sometimes the still photos just blah out!  Here is a sample video.

Since I live on an island there is always going to be wind, and I think that the wind adds drama and interest to the video.

Final garden shot is Salvia microphylla ‘Hot Lips’ and Jagged Leaf Verbena.  The Salvia looks like little Canadian flags, perfect for Canada Day on July 1st.

Eleven Shaft Tea Towels Wrap Up

My eleven shaft tea towels are done, done, done and it was a lovely project overall.

One of the neat things that happened while I was doing some random treadling between the tea towels is that these lovely hearts magically appeared.  This is just a partial pattern treadling and I know I’ll go back to it later and see if I can make it work as a repeating pattern.

The take up on this pattern was more than I expected and I ended up weaving right to the very end of the warp.  I really don’t like to go this close to the heddles because the shed was sooooo tight.  This is also a pretty good shot of the colourful hair clips that I use to hold the heddles that I’m not using together.  Everytime I sit down to thread a new warp I’m delighted by the Easter colours and of  course the bunny ears help!

Here are my tea towels off the loom, before wet finishing.  I love this shot.

I had a hard time deciding which side would be the ‘right’ side, frankly both are lovely.

These are the four different wefts that I chose for my Spring Tea Towels.

The front and back sides of each of the duplicate coloured wefts.

I placed an order with Maurice Brassard et fils in Quebec for more 2/8 cotton and this lovely box of possibilites arrived in just four days.

One of the things I do right away is take a sharpie to each tube of cotton and mark colour them in.  I choose a different colour each time.  This not only helps me with using up my stock by age, but really helps with keeping the dye lots seperate.

This shot is a bit blurry, but you can still clearly tell that they are the same colour, from the same supplier but differing dye lots.  I have been caught out more than once, I’m sorry to say, with a streak in my web because I got the dye lots mixed up.  Surprisingly this has also happened with white cotton, not only with the dyed cotton; I guess there are differences in the bleaching process too.

At this point I update my yarn binder and I can’t say enough about what a good idea this is.  I have written blogs about making this binder in the past and it is my best organizational tool. (Focusing on Fibres March 2009 and Confessions of a Compulsive Organizer December 2019); I would be lost without it.

Our Garden is really lovely right now and the perennial borders are at their best. This is a really lovely shot of Penstemon hybrid ‘Garnet’ commonly called Beard Tongue.  What a weird name for a truly spectacular summer perennial.  The hummingbirds and bummble bees love it.

Blue Striped Tea Towels

I have just put on a warp that is seven yards long, which is enough for six generous tea towels.  I didn’t really have a final plan for the colour of the tea towels, I wasn’t sure if they were going to be the same colour but different treadlings or if I was going to just change the weft colours.  All I knew was that for the first set of two tea towels I was going to use the same royal blue as I used in the warp.

The tea towel is really pretty with the royal blue weft and the patten really shines through.  The treadling is straight point twill but when I first started the tea towel, within the first three inches, I made a treadling mistake!  Thankfully the mistake was easy to see so a little unweaving and away I went.

I wove two tea towels with the royal blue weft.  Then I auditioned some different coloured wefts.  The first two were denim and a navy.  The navy is a possibility but the denim just looked faded.

Next I tried purple and that was a big nope for me.

The last two weft colours that I tried were a bright blue and a periwinkle blue.  These two are definitely the weft colours for the next two sets of tea towels, very fresh and clean looking.

When I change weft colours I also change my hanging selvedges to match the new weft colour.  I make sure to change the hanging selvedge in the middle of the spacer between the two tea towels, as sometimes there can be some pulling.  I just wind it around a long pin and away I go.

I decided to keep the treadling as is for the tea towels and just change the weft colour.  I really enjoyed using this pretty bright blue so much so I only have this one photo of the tea towels, they wove up really fast.

The next set of two tea towels is the periwinkle blue.  It is a lovely rich colour.  I am just starting the last tea towel in this colour and I will finish the tea towel today because it is a rainy day so I’m stuck inside while the grass just keep getting longer.

The roll of finished tea towels on the cloth beam is so pretty, I’m glad that I went with the bright and cheerful blues!

The final Garden Photo is Gaillardia x grandiflora 'Comotion Moxie' and what a beauty!

Cotolin Tea Towels on Eleven

I’m still plodding along with my “Sunny Day’ tea towels and I’m currently weaving towel number five.

I have really jumped into the spring theme and I’ve taken the plunge into pink.  I rarely use pink, but for some reason, right now, they feel very optimistic.

As always my goal is to  use partial tubes of yarn for the weft whenever possible.  To that end, I’ve been weighing each tube before and after weaving; and this is when weighing in grams is a real benefit.  I have found that each tea towel uses exactly 59 grams of Borg’s cotolin for a yard long tea towel.

So far I’ve woven two tea towels (above) using what I originally called salmon and now I’m changing to quince to keep with the spring botanical theme.

I have woven one in pink lilac and it is extremely light lilac.

This one is in a very pale apple blossom pink, a real girly and sweet pink.

This one is in true lilac and I have exactly 59 grams left on the tube after weaving this tea towel, so, if I’m very brave and trust my math, I may pull on my big girl pants and use this instead of the pink lilac for my last tea towel, which has a much safer amount left on the tube.

I will admit that although I’m slow at weaving these tea towels they have been an extremely satisfying weave ~ I don’t have to concentrate too much with the treadling and the pattern really appeals to me. I will definitely use this pattern again, perhaps for a scarf or shawl.

I almost forgot to show you the beauty photos of the 8 Shaft Frond pattern shawl that I took off the loom last month.  This shawl turned out just wonderfully light and supple; and since I’m a bit of a magpie and drawn to shiny things, it fills that role too.
             
Today’s garden shot is the Phlomis russeliana or Turkish sage. The flowers on the bottom tier are just beginning to open.  This plant makes these lovely little rosettes of flowers all the way around the stem and then the stem starts growing out of the centre of the blossoms and does it all again making three or four tiers of petty yellow flowers.