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Fiesta to Sherbet

That yarn that I thought looked overwhelmingly bright, like a Mexican fiesta, turned into a lovely rainbow sherbet when I wove it in twill blocks with an undyed weft. The colors are a bunch more muted in real life than they appear in the photo.

hand painted rayon scarf --- rainbow sherbet

I wish I’d woven both with that weft. Instead I wove the second with a periwinkle weft. Jack couldn’t resist photo bombing this one.

handpainted rayon scarf, periwinkle & fiesta

Here’s how I decided to finish the fringe on that leno pima cotton scarf. I think it added a nice touch to a nice scarf.

pima cotton scarf with undulating fringe

Although I don’t have a photo of it, I decided to turn that rayon scarf with the problem fringe that turned yellow at the end into an infinity scarf. That way no yellow will show.

I’ve said it before about other towels and I’ll probably say it again about new ones, but I think these are my favorite ever kitchen towels.

color block towel

I love their colorfulness. Is that a word? They make me smile just to look at them. I wish they’d made me smile to weave them. The natural cotton is soooo soft that it kept breaking warp threads near the selvedges. I wove 3, cut them off, and re-tied, thinking that might help. Then I wove the other 3. Still problematic. I am decidedly not proud of the selvedges on these towels, but I think they’ll be really thirsty. And I’m betting they sell regardless of their less-than-beautiful selvedges. But we all know what happens when I say that. 🙂

Gotta get back to the loom now. Still cranking out work.

7 comments to Fiesta to Sherbet

  • Cathi

    Love, love, love, those color block tea towels! Trying to figure out how the direction of the twill changed from the blocks to the white. Must be a treadling change, yes? Thanks!

    • Peg Cherre

      Yes, Cathi, it is a treadling change, but also a threading change. If you google twill blocks you will find the threading, tie up, and treadling to achieve this. It’s not hard. Then you design the width you’d like of your blocks, and they do not need to be consistent across the width or length of the piece – you can change them at will!

  • Both scarves are lovely. And your towels are great – I can see why they’d make you smile.

  • Peg Cherre

    Alma – I really like the way the colors blended in these scarves. Maybe because I left places with the original yellow? I’m not sure why, but I’m trying that strategy again.

    Theresa – I use floating selvedges a lot, and did with these towels, too. Interestingly, it wasn’t the floating selvedge threads that kept breaking, it was the threads in the last 4-6 heddles. I don’t use a temple, and thought that might have helped, but (a) I hate using temples and (b) I don’t have a ‘real’ temple, only the homemade kind using clips, strings, and weights. Maybe that’s part of why I hate using them?

  • Jack looks very nice next to periwinkle! Those scarves are beautiful as is the towel. I’m working with some very soft 8/2 natural cotton. I’m thinking of adding a few floating selvage threads each side to keep the edges somewhat neat.

  • Alma

    I love the blending into red in the picture with Jack!

    The natural with fancy fringe is great!

    You know my feeling about plaids and colorfulness. I agree that the towel is Grrrrreat!

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