Cotton Towels

For my first set of tea towels I followed the Bright & Beautiful Towels pattern by Kelly Casanova, just changing the colors. I used 8/2 Brassard cotton on my 1989 Harrisville 4 shaft/6 treadle floor loom. 

I wet finished the towels and then waited for a walking foot for my sewing machine which made lining up the stripes easier. 

Still attached in a row.

The finished products - VERY PLEASED! The one with green was a birthday present for Isaac and the 2nd from bottom I gave to Carlos. 

Colinette Scarf

For this project on my Schact Flip rigid heddle loom, I followed the directions of someone who posted photos of a lovely scarf using Colinette for the warp, something I wouldn't have considered since it isn't a plied yarn. What made it work was that (following the poster's lead) I warped the Colinette yarn every other slot with a white sock yarn in between, then transferred the Colinette to slots only (where it would suffer less wear and tear) and moved the white sock yarn to the holes. I used black sock yarn for the weft, beating lightly. I used all but a a few feet of the Colinette yarn in an 8 inch weaving width and 6' length. The resulting scarf is just over 5' long and just under 7" wide. I decided to tie off and cut the white warp threads because I liked the look of the Colinette-only fringe better. 

I like the result a lot but don't love it - maybe it will grow on me. 

I used my yarn swift and ball winder for the first time while good dog Maple supervised.

Weaving in Tucson - rigid heddle

I’ve looked forward to weaving with the grandgirls on the rigid heddle loom since before I bought it. I purchased a purple acrylic yarn at JoAnn’s for the warp and used an acrylic rainbow yarn I had on hand for the weft. I taught them every step of the process from warping through creating the tassels. Ada did most of the warping and together they did most of the weaving and lots of the rest. I was really impressed with how quickly they picked it up and how nice their edges were.

Weaving in Tucson - floor loom

I had planned to just take my Schacht Flip rigid heddle loom to Tucson but a lovely 1975 Harrisville loom, 22" width, showed up in the Harrisville facebook group right before we headed south and I bought it. I decided that the rigid heddle loom would be busy the whole time with the scarves we had planned for the grandgirls to make and this gave me the opportunity to weave, too.

I chose a variegated acrylic yarn that I had seen in the rigid heddle facebook group and used the warping board that came with the loom to warp on a width I thought would work for a narrowish shawl/widish scarf for travel. I just used a tabby (straight weave) and let the colors do the work.

I was told the loom came with 10 and 12 dent reeds but didn't check (lesson learned). I warped and threaded what I thought we'd be 15", then discovered it was an 8 dent reed which made it closer to 20". I decided to remove the extra from each side to center the color pattern; I pulled them off the fabric bean and out of the reed and heddles and wound them up occasionally as they hung off the warp beam. I plan to use them on a future project. 

Also, the length proved too long for my taste so I ended up with a scarf and a table runner. 

 

Scarf for Mariah

Mariah gave me lots of beautiful yarn for Christmas, both purchased new and discovered at resale stores. I received 4 skeins of this beautiful Noro yarn. I used just under a skein and a half of it for the weft.

For the warp I used this yarn from House of A La Mode yarn shop down town, the same type as the warp for Tara's scarf. I used my 8 dpi heddle, 88 ends and just under 8'.

Scarf with Unique Yarn

While I was at the yarn shop I fell in love with a really unique, sort of wild-looking ball of yarn and bought it to make a scarf for myself. I coupled it with a moss green sock-weight yarn called 'Fennel', warped at 110 ends in a 10 dent reed, just over 8' long.

The colors turned out much more muted than I expected, a bit disappointing at first but the finished scarf is beautiful. I should have moved the first length I wanted on the stick shuttle into a ball first, then onto the shuttle which meant that - even though I did that with subsequent lengths - I basically connected what was the very start of the ball to what came next mid scarf instead of taking advantage of the full flow intended when the yarn was created. I ended up with a bit of an awkward, longer green space on the scarf that I'm glad isn't near the end. I'm learning! 

The yarn ball was prettier before I used half of it - wish I would have taken a photo sooner.

Closeup on the loom

Closeup after wet finishing

It's hard to see but I added a double length of weft yarn to each 4 warp, moving left to right burgandy, red, tan, green, yellow - it doesn't show a lot but adds a bit of sparkle.

Scarf for Tara

I decided to make a scarf for our daughter-in-law Tara using a pattern I purchased called 'Garden Path Scarf, my first attempt at a lacy weave. I purchased the yarn at House of a la Mode, a wonderful local yarn shop. The black warp is a simple sock-weight yarn and the teal is hand dyed by the owner of the shop. It looks different in different photos because of lighting but in truth is in the range of the 3rd and 4th photos. I warped128 ends using a 10 dent reed, about 9' long (would make it less another time). The pattern was relatively easy to learn. Overall I was really pleased, although I was surprised how dominant the black was and I also started at a looser tension on the leading edge, would be more careful about that another time. I hope she likes it!

My first time using shelf liner - works well!