Another dyepot

Navy overdye.

Fuchsia in the dye pot

Doing a little dyeing today.

Linen and Lace

Some samples in linen with cottolin color accents, for toweling.  The setting is 30 epi, the linen warp is 40/2 half-bleached and unbleached.  The weft is 20/1 linen half-bleached.  Block twills, a sort of turned honeycomb, and some Ms & Os.

TotM Update - November crackle weave

No, I haven't abandoned the Towel of the Month (though this month seemed pretty full up with getting ready for the Designing Weavers sale).  Here's a photo of November's towel as it was being woven.  I must say I don't really "get" crackle weave.  It seems to have all the blurriness of overshot and none of the pattern.  I'm not sure it's worth the complicated threading.  I know there are other ways to weave it besides this overshot method using tabby, including polychrome, so I may have to return to it again some day.

I do like the colors in this towel, though!  Here's the finished towel.

Draft for November's towel - Crackle Weave

Crackle weave actually comes to us from Sweden, where it is called Jamtlandsväv.  The term "crackle" was coined by Mary Atwater in the 1920s and 30s when she introduced it to her Shuttle-Craft Guild.  The threading sequences for crackle weave patterns can be very long with no repeats, so be prepared for this if you want to make this towel.

The warp is 40/2 bleached linen, again set at 30 epi, and the ground weft is the same 40/2 bleached linen.  For the pattern weft, I used 22/2 cottolin in autumn colors.

The treadling is shown in this screenshot from the weaving software I use (Fiberworks PCW).  The patterned area is woven "using tabby", that is weave a pattern pick with the pattern colored yarn, then a plain weave pick, then another pattern pick, then the alternate tabby.  Note that the center portion is not exactly symmetrical.

October's Towel

Ms & Os weave, 40/2 linen (bleached & unbleached), 30 epi/ppi.  The photo is of the towel after hemming and wet-finishing and ironing.  I really like this one; I may have to explore this structure further.

October's Puzzler Continues - tie-up and treadling

Okay, so halfway through threading this towel, I realized I should have taken a closer look at the photo in the article.  There are more than 7 repeats across the towel.  In fact it looks like there are eleven.














So the repeat must be six of the threading units from the middle of the profile, with the other 5 at the edges as balance.  6 x 11 + 5 = 71.  Oh, well; I am making a different design!

If you are weaving this project and want it to look like the photo, I think this 11x profile draft to the right here will do it, rather than the 7x one I put in the previous post.  Use the same threading key from the previous post, substituting the 8-thread units for the blocks A and B.

When looking at the treadling sequence, I'm meeting with similar confusion as I had with the threading.  There is no indication of which part to repeat.  Not the whole thing?  It's not symmetrical and doesn't seem to relate to the threading.  The photo shows a design that looks like a "squared" plaid.  The threading has only 24 ends of the bleached linen in a stripe, yet this treadling is showing 44 picks of the bleached.









I've made a treadling sequence that "squares off" the 7x threading that I used.

And if you're using the 11x threading, this sequence should square it off.

September's towel in autumn colors

September's towels are woven, hemmed, wet-finished and ready for service.

Unbleached 40/2 linen ground warp and weft, 22/2 cottolin supplementary pattern warp in fall colors.  Turned Monk's Belt.

September TotM - Sett and Yarns - some color for end of summer!

Here are the colors of pattern warp that I picked out based on the color names in the article and yarns available to me.  Don't they make a pretty late-summer-harvest kind of palette?  I got this 22/2 cottolin from Yarn Barn of KS.  The ground warp is a 40/2 linen like the earlier towels, and the Barrett article calls for unbleached.

I was so intent on trying to explain the draft in my last post, I neglected to mention that this towel is set at 30 ends per inch, just like all the previous towels so far this year.  At least, the linen ground warp is at 30 ends per inch, and the total linen ends are 570 ends for an in-reed width of 19".  In the colored pattern stripe areas, the pattern warp is a supplementary warp - that is, it is not a part of the basic plain weave ground cloth that the linen forms - so it goes in right on top of the 30 epi linen, one pattern thread per ground thread.  So in the pattern areas, the sett is actually 60 ends per inch.

I wound and beamed this pattern warp separate from the ground linen.  For most of the colors you'll wind a few ends, then cut and tie off and start the next color.  But if you're using a warping board or pegs, for colors that repeat near each other like all those greens in the center of the main stripe, you can set the yarn package aside while you wind the other colors if you like, then return to the color set aside as you need it again.

September's Towel - Turned Monk's Belt

The weave for the Towel of the Month for September is another "turned" structure: that is, it's woven with the patterning in the warp, whereas the "normal" way to weave it is with the pattern formed in the weft.  This design also has some color in it ("yay - finally!" say the color-lovers, after looking at all those natural-colored linen lace weaves).  The ground warp and the weft are unbleached linen, and I am using 22/2 cottolin as the colored pattern warp.

The draft looks a little complicated, but I've tried to add a few labels to fill in the blanks.  Start by looking at the center of the diagram, where there is a sketch of the width of the towel.  From right to left, there will be 74 ends of linen threaded on shafts 1 and 2 to weave plain weave, then a stripe of the pattern, then a central area of linen plain weave, another stripe, and finally 76 ends of plain weave.

The profile draft for the stripes is at the top of the diagram.  Each square represents a sequence of 4 threads, two linen and two pattern.  From right to left, thread two units of block A, then one of B and so on.  The threading for the two blocks A and B are at the left in the diagram.  When you are sleying the reed, the pattern stripes will be sleyed double the density of the plain weave portions: if you are using a 15-dent reed, all 4 threads go in one dent.

The colors of the cottolin are indicated at the bottom.  I wasn't sure what color "bittersweet" was, so I looked it up and it seems to be a salmony orange.  Notice that although the threading of the stripe is symmetrical, the color order is not, so reverse the order for the second stripe.   Since this is a supplementary warp, you may want to beam the cottolin separately from the linen if you have a second warp beam.

August TotM - Huck

The latest in the Towel of the Month series was in a huck threading, 40/2 linen warp set at 30 epi.  The weft is 40/2 linen as well.

I wove two towels, one using the huck lace tie-up and treadling (on the right in the photo), and one in huck spot (left).  I think the huck spot is more practical as a towel, so that one has gone off to its new home.


For the threading, tie-up and treadlings to make this towel yourself, see the draft in this post.

August TotM Weaving

Here's the huck lace version of the August towel, in natural 40/2 unbleached linen.  To make the design square, weave the plain weave between the lace treadling sequence the same size as the plain weave threading between the lace threading blocks.  If you are weaving evenweave (the same picks per inch as ends per inch), this will be 36 picks of plain weave between the lace.

August TotM - More Lace Weaving

Summer is flying by, isn't it?

The Towel of the Month for August uses a huck threading in blocks, surrounded by plain weave.  Here are the stats:

Warp: unbleached 40/2 linen
Weft: same as warp
Total number of warp ends: 564
Warp setting: 30 ends per inch (epi)
Width in reed: 18.8"

Thread according to the draft shown here.

There are two different treadlings for this towel.  You can make huck lace using the first tie-up and treadling, or you can make huck "spots" with the other combination.  Make one towel using each!

July's towel completed

A shot of the finished July towel with its stars and stripes.  There's something nice about the wet-finished, ironed linen, the way it drapes.  It's soft, yet at the same time it has a lot of body and crispness, with a bit of sheen.  It's hard to capture in a static photo.

July TotM - 4th of July Weaving

Happy Independence Day!

On the loom: 40/2 linen warp at 30 epi in rosepath threading, 20/1 linen ground weft, 5/2 cotton pattern weft.

Cool Linen Lace in the Light - June TotM Completed

June's Towel of the Month is in Lace Bronson (aka Atwater-Bronson lace).  In this photo it is backlit against an open window in the breeze.  I think it would make some pretty curtains, don't you?

And here's the finished hemmed towel, ready to go to another test kitchen.










How's your summer weaving going?  Do you have a project you want to get done in the long summer days?

TotM - June's Draft

 

June's Towel of the Month, like May's, is also Atwater-Bronson lace (aka Lace Bronson), but instead of one of the blocks being turned, this draft uses two "normal" blocks of lace that are woven to make squares in an all-over lace pattern over the towel.

The threading goes like this: 4 ends of plain weave for the selvedge or border, then start the repeating sequence: 10 ends plain weave, 12 ends (2 units) of lace block A, 12 ends lace block B, 12 ends lace block A.   So the repeat has 46 ends.  Repeat those 46 ends 12 times (552 ends).  Then finish with 10 ends of plain weave to balance, and 4 ends of selvedge/border.  Total 4 + 552 + 10 + 4 = 570 ends.

The warp is bleached (if you can find it - I used1/2-bleached) 40/2 linen, and the weft is bleached 20/1 linen.

The treadling repeat in the Barrett article says to put 30 picks of plain weave between your lace block squares, but you might want to try 10 to make it the same "as drawn in".

May TotM - Weaving (Turned) Bronson Lace

Here's the May Towel-of-the-Month on the loom.  This is 40/2 linen warp and 20/1 linen weft, with stripes of 5/2 cotton warp and weft.

The "lace Bronson" (horizontal weft floats) and "turned lace Bronson" (vertical warp floats) are being used to put the thicker pink threads to the top side of the fabric, to accentuate the windowpane check.  I find it interesting that where the two lines of lace intersect, there is a little area of plain weave.

I omitted two picks before and after putting in the weft stripe, and I think it looks better this way.  Compare the intersection in the top of the photo with that at the bottom.  The one at the top is woven according to the original draft.  The one at the bottom omits the "extra" pick between the blocks in the treadling sequence, and omits one of the two picks on either side of that "extra" one.  So instead of adding a pick between the blocks, they are "sharing" a pick instead.  See how the plain weave area looks more square in the bottom intersection, while the top one looks like a vertical rectangle.

Here's the modified treadling sequence.  I think it must be the color-and-weave effect that makes me think this looks better, because now there is more plain weave in the horizontal direction.

May TotM - Turned Atwater-Bronson Lace

The May Towel of the Month features a lace weave.  It has warp floats in a contrasting warp, and corresponding contrasting floats in the weft direction, forming a windowpane-check-like design overall on the towel.

The lace is "turned", then, because some of the floats are weft floats (in the "default" or "normal" lace manner), and the other floats are "turned" - in the warp direction.

The draft in the Weaver's Journal article looks to me to have a couple errors in it.  I hope I've corrected them in the diagram here.  I tried it out in the weaving software I have and it looks right.  We'll see when we start the weaving on this one!

Since I haven't seen anyone new joining in here weaving along, I'm changing my plans and weaving only two of each towel, one to give to a family member and one to keep.  Otherwise I'll end up with 24 kitchen towels, which would probably last the rest of my life.  I still hope you will join in the fun and try some of these towels, and try weaving them in linen especially.  I am having fun weaving with linen, and the fiber is so thirsty it dries off dishes without spots or lint and is quick to dry hands as well.