Festive exchange towels

Sorry Meg, I said I was going to post this yesterday...

I have two tea towels to enter into this exchange. I've posted about them both previously, so nothing new and exciting here.

They're both a cream cotton (not sure of size, maybe a little thicker than the 22/2 cottolin that I have). The colour is a fairly dark cream, but isn't "dirty" looking at all. They can either be a pair or separate - they're the same colour but not the same design or size.

The patterning on both is Swedish Lace. "Chantilly Cream" is 32cm x 55cm, and is an allover lace pattern (blocks of varying sizes).


"Devonshire Cream" is slightly larger, 32.5cm x 63cm. It was done on the same threading, but I did a pickup pattern to make a plain diamond in the middle.


I've already been told quite a few times that the second one would make a nice table mat, so I guess there's that option too. The pictures don't really show the lace patterning too well, but my photography skills could do with a bit of work.

Wickelbander off the loom

During the weekend I decided that I wouldn't get my weaving finished by Tuesday morning, so I didn't put too much effort in. Last night I decided that maybe I could do it... Four hours later I was cutting the 6-ish metres off the loom and giving it a bath. And now I am trying to drape it over things at work to get it dry without making it dirty (not so easy when you work in an office attached to a foundry...)

Using an eyeometer it looks like a fairly good replication. The new version feels stretchy, but possibly not as stretchy as the old version. This may just be wishful thinking though, since it's the result I was hoping for. When it's dry and I have space (and a tape measure on hand) I will test stretchiness, take photos, and compare weave density more closely. If they really are different then I might have to think about incarnation three - warp weighted horizontal loom. I'm not sure how well that will work with a table loom though, it seems like it would be a lot easier to set up on a floor loom.

Next table loom project is making a cloth apron for the back beam, my (somewhat bendy) stick tied on with string is starting to drive me batty...

First differences

I've found the first differences already. When I wove the first set of wickelbander I beat them as hard as I could. With these ones I found that I had to resley the outside threads to try and keep the number of picks per inch down - and I'm still beating very lightly.

I'm assuming the difference is a combination of different tensions (beating harder on the WW Loom just lifts the weaving because the ends are not fixed - maybe heavier weights would allow for tighter weaving?) and the different method of beating. The warp weighted loom is beaten with a 'sword' (or a ruler) across the weaving. I can see how that might behave differently to being beaten with a reed.

I only managed a couple of inches on it last night, after fiddling with threading and tension. With any luck the set-up will be good enough now (I think it's still not quite as loose as the first pair, but I don't think I can do much about that easily).

Let the experiment begin

And the experiment starts... A couple of years ago I wove some wickelbander (leg wraps) on my baby warp-weighted loom. The bands were coarser than they should historically be (12 epi), but as they were my first real project on that loom I was more interested in getting a feel for the loom. The wool was a DK semi-worsted wool (Ashford Tekapo), in natural grey/brown (warp) and dark madder-ish orange (weft). The weave was a 2-1 herringbone twill, 8 ends in each section (48 ends total). The end result was an amazingly stretchy strip of cloth (each one is around 2.4m long unstretched, and stretches to around 2.8m (I think, I'm pulling numbers off the top of my head - I'll actually measure it at some point)).

Anyway, the short version is that I now want to see how much of that stretchiness is related to the wool, and how much is the weaving method. I have wound a white warp onto my table loom, which will be woven with a blue (indigo-ish) weft.

I expect there to be some difference between the two methods of weaving, but I'm not sure how much it will be because the wool is a fairly stretchy knitting wool.

I still need to finish threading, but I'm hoping it should be a fairly quick weave, even if it is around 6m long.

Tea towels

Tea towel 2: Before washing - 34 x 66.5 cm, after washing - 32.5 x 63 cm

This one was an experiment with warp manipulation

Tea towel 3: Before washing - 34 x 62 cm, after washing - 32 x 59 cm

This one was going to be simpler, with some colour experimenting and a combination of warp and weft lace spots. But then the middle section looked like it needed some warp manipulation too, which also had to contain warp and weft spots...

Apparently they're too pretty to use...

Tea towel 3...

Oops. I thought that this one was going to be a simpler pattern, and just be interesting because it has colour. Instead it's turning out to be even fiddlier than the second one.

I think the moral of the story is that I can't cope with doing plain things, at least when I have no set plan. I just have too much fun thinking "I wonder if this will work..."

The other moral of the story is that Swedish Lace appears to be even more fun with a bit of manual manipulation thrown in. I just hope it looks as interesting as it is to make.

Tea towel 2

Is woven. Still on the loom though - I was happy enough with how the first one washed up that I will finish the warp off before cutting it off. Second tea towel is similar to the first one, but should be a bit longer, and was a bit fiddlier to do some of the patterning on.

Planning is now happening on the third one, I think it's going to have some blue stripes at the ends, but I'll see what I think of that once I've actually tried it.

Photos will probably happen sometime after they're off the loom, which I'm hoping will be this weekend.

Photos...

I managed to organise myself enough to take photos after work today. The sun was a bit bright, so I have a bunch of wonderfully washed out pictures, but they give the general idea

First - the tea towel.
The colour is actually somewhere between a light butter yellow and a heavy cream, definitely not the off-white type of cream.
It has Swedish lace patterning:


And the cat seems fairly happy with it (or at least is willing to claim it as his:


There are also some photos of bits of the mystery stole.
It's large and pink (and yes, I'm aware that the deck needs painting):


And this seems like a better choice than the tea towel:

Tea towel 1

Just cut the first tea towel off and hemmed it. It's a bit smaller than I would have liked, but still quite usable - 33.5cm x 59cm before washing.

From a quick measure while damp after washing it looks like the finished dimensions are 32 x 55. It may end up turning into a hand towel or something, if it doesn't seem big enough to be useful.

I'll have a look at it tomorrow, but I'm thinking it's likely that I'll be resleying - it doesn't actually look too tight, but I think it could possibly get away with being a bit looser anyway.

Slack about updating.

I've been pretty slack about updating over the last couple of weeks. What have I been doing?

I wound a cotton warp for making some Swedish Lace tea towels, which then magically got itself onto the loom somehow. The first tea towel is now 2/3rds woven, and I'm procrastinating on rewinding the shuttle. Because I really am that lazy. I think the sett is slightly too tight, so I'm probably going to cut the first one off when it's done and wash it to see how it comes up. I should take a photo of it sometime, but there's procrastination blocking that too...

I've also been knitting a "mystery stole" over the last six weeks. It's large and lacy, and I'm glad it's done. There's nothing wrong with the pattern, it just didn't really click for me. It's currently a fairly drab pink, but I'd always planned to overdye it once it was done (and once I'd seen what colour it looked like it wanted to be). Currently I'm thinking I'll overdye it blue, but I want to let it sit and think about it for a while.

And now that I've gotten the stole off the needles I feel justified in making socks again. I bought a few skeins of Vintage Purls sock wool, and am now working on two pairs of socks (and planning a third)...