Autumn Leaves Towels Are Completed

Last October, I made a long warp for towels.  My inspiration was the beautiful fall colors on the trees in Michigan and was why I named the towels Autumn Leaves.  I was able to finish four of the towels before Christmas and they became Christmas gifts for my daughters.

I put the warp on my Leclerc Jano table loom, and after the first towel, I removed the two outermost stripes.  It was just too wide for the loom.  The next three towels wove a little better.

After cutting the first four towels off the loom, I retied the warp and started what I hoped would be five or six more towels.  As the warp decreased on the loom, it became easier to weave.  I cut a few more towels off and continued to weave the rest of the warp.  Each batch got easier.  I'm not sure if it was because of less warp on the loom, or I just got into a routine with the weaving.

I finished the last towels a few days ago.  The were wet finished, dried, pressed and hemmed, and then they were posed for a photo.  All of the towels were woven as checks with a single color except for the last one.  I had a little fun playing around with the block sizes, and I used all eight colors instead of just one.  I think I like that one the best!  It was a good way to empty all the bobbins of the yarn left on them.

Now, I am back out in the studio weaving a rug, and thinking about more rugs to follow.

I started with the intention of doing a rug with dark cloth strips in a twill pattern, but couldn't find the fabrics I wanted to use, so I went back to doubled threads in an almost tabby.  I am using up more polyester doubleknit strips I had sitting around in a box from an old braided rug attempt from many years ago.  Yea stash reduction!  This one is going quickly, but is not on my Weaver's Delight, so it is a little harder on my arms and shoulders.  I should have it done in a few days.

Hopefully, by the time this rug is complete, I will come up with fabrics to try my other design plan.  The way this is threaded, I can weave x's and diamonds, and they show up especially well in the white stripes.  I think it will make a distinctive rug.

Atwater-Bronson Lace Pick-up

Along with finishing weaving the rag rug last night, I also finished the hems (by machine) on the Atwater-Bronson lace towel I was working on.  This towel is a sampler of designs I drew on graph paper, when I was playing around with the possibilities for this lace pick-up technique.  There are twelve squares, each with a different design.  Each square consists of 10 x 10 lace blocks.  Each lace block consists of eight warp threads and eight weft picks.

I divided the designs into groups depending on how many blocks each required.  I just kept drawing until I had enough designs for what I wanted to do.  Since my squares were 10 x 10 blocks, I needed to use an even number design, or the design wouldn't be centered.  If I used the designs that are 7 or 9 blocks wide, I would thread an uneven number of lace blocks.  The x part of the design turns out as plain weave when woven.

This is one half of the towel.  The designs from my graph are:
Top row: 8-G, 6-E, 8-F
Bottom row: 6-I, 8-E, 6-B

This is the other end of the towel.  The patterns are:   Top row:  6-A, 8-H, 6-B (minus 4 x's).  Bottom row:  8-L (minus 4 x's), 6-C, 8-I

This is a very easy weave structure, and the treadling sequence is very easy to memorize.  My grandson Davey (age 8) was over last weekend, and he was able to weave some of it, and understood the pickup on this simple pattern, which is only 4 blocks wide by 3 blocks high:

As I mentioned in a previous post, this pickup idea came from an article by Bob Owen in the March/April 1992 issue of Handwoven, pg. 56-57.

If I was going to change anything the next time, I would have more lace, and less plain weave divisions.  But then, the possibilities are just about endless.  Unfortunately, I will probably not have enough time to ever weave all my ideas.

I'm going out to get that rag rug off the loom now.  

Towels Are Finished

I just finished hemming the towels and getting final pictures of  them. 

This is woven with five colors of orange, with yellow for the hems.

      




                                                                       
  

This towel was woven with a thick/thin dark brown that I purchased.  It bled a lot when wet finishing it, so the colored yarns absorbed some of it.  It turned out quite muted in color.

              

   The towels woven with the white weft yarn showed off the warp colors.                                                                    

This photo is showing two towels, with opposite sides as the front of the towels.  Clicking on the photo will enlarge it, so the differences between the two sides can be seen.

This towel was one of the last to be woven.  I was still trying to use some of my dyed yarns. I chose three greens (light, medium, and dark)  and separated them with turquoise.  I used the Fibonachi sequence to determine how far to weave.  I used 2 and 3 repeats for the turquoise, and either 5, 8 or 13 repeats for the greens.  It's one of my favorites, but then, I always have liked plaid.

This towel was woven with another yarn that I purchased.  It was a bumpy turquoise, and bled so much, I could have dyed another large skein of yarn with the rinse water. 

This final bit was woven with yellow.  It's large enough to use for a dishrag, so my kitchen will adopt it.

My sister-in-law is the happy recipient of one of the earlier towels.  She is the person I have to thank for letting me learn to weave about 5 years ago.  She lent me a 4 shaft countermarche loom that she picked up at a garage sale for $50.  She couldn't pass up the bargain, but had never used it because she doesn't have any room for it in the house.  I still use it on occasion, and have started  teaching the granddaughters on it.  Thanks Mary!

It's nice to have a project finished.  Now time for bed.