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.

More Rugs

I have mixed feelings about weaving rugs.  They weave fast if there isn't any variation to them, but I seem to be most attracted to the ones with stripes or more detail.  There is such a lot of prep work that goes into a nice rug, that it usually takes longer than weaving it.  Prepping is a lot of hard work, and some can be hard on the body.  My hands are getting pretty sore, so I may soon have to take a break and get back to finer weaving with just yarn.

Before I got the Weaver's Delight up and running, I put a warp on Fanny. This one ended up with stripes in both directions.  I was trying to use up some horrible old polyester doubleknit that I inherited.  The warp will definitely wear out before the weft does!  The majority of the rug is of a tan, gray, and white striped fabric cut about an inch wide.  The narrower accent stripes are navy blue and burgundy strips.  I cut them 1/2" wide and doubled them since these particular knits were kind of stiff.  They packed in better that way.  The red was twisted with the navy to give a little accent color.  This rug is getting close to being finished.  I haven't decided what will be next, but it may be one fabric, or one color with a twill variation.  Denim could be a possibility if my hands and wrists hold up to the rotary cutting.

I ran into a little difficulty today weaving this small rug.  This is the third rug I have made on the Weaver's Delight, and the manual warned about checking the bolts for tightness.  Things started to loosen up, and suddenly I couldn't make anything move.  Being new to the loom, it took me a bit of looking before I figured the trouble was with the "A" part needing to be scooted a little to the left, toward the "B" part.  I was able to complete the rug, but it started doing it again just as I was finishing the hem.  I will get back to it tomorrow, in the daylight, when I can see what I'm doing. 

Most of the rugs I am weaving are probably going to go up for sale.  Our church regularly goes on a mission trip to Kentucky every year, and they need to raise the funds for any repair projects they sign up to do.  Hopefully, I will have a stack of rugs before next years trip. 

I actually wove this rug for us.  We needed a small rug by the tub/shower that wouldn't cover the heat register on the floor.  The light colored fabric is a recycled mattress ticking.  I like how the striped fabric looks when woven.  The rest of the fabrics are from my large stash, chosen to match the colors in the shower curtain.  I'm determined to gradually whittle away at the many boxes of fabric upstairs in my studio.

The 8 1/2 yards of warp that I put on the WD is quickly coming to an end.  I will probably get one or two more rugs from it, and then I will probably try the plain weave cams on the next warp.