Good things are happening

Good things like not one but two batches of towels finished and listed in my Etsy shop. First up is that neutrals warp I talked about in the last post. The towels turned out great, if I do say so myself.

You can see that although I was able to ease in the hem, it still flares a little, but I’m okay with it.

In fact, I liked the towels so well that I decided to put on another warp in that Ms & Os structure, although designed differently. A threading error and reed sleying error, both of which happen often, and I was off and running with a warp that alternated stripes of color with natural, undyed cotton.

The colors in these towels make them brighter than the neutrals, but still not as colorful as my work tends to be. 🙂

Now, I’m working hard at using up my stash. That means using both color combinations and yarn sizes that are a bit of a stretch for me. This towel warp has 8/2 cotton (natural), 10/2 cotton (peacock and burgundy), and 12/2 cotton (goldenrod, pink, and sage). I therefore had to sett the yarns differently to make sure I had a good quality cloth at the end. I sett the 8/2 cotton at 24 ends per inch (EPI), which is my standard for towels, the 10/2 at 28 EPI, and the 12/2 at 32 EPI. I’ve never mixed setts in a single warp before and wasn’t sure how easy or difficult this would be to accomplish, and how the finished fabric would look and feel.

Well. The combination of 16 ends in each of the colored stripes and a 12 dent reed made adjusting the sett super easy. And the finished fabric? It’s a tad lighter than my usual, especially since I used those same yarns for weft, but that means that if you want to get your hand inside a glass to dry it, this towel will serve better than my usual. Of course, I can’t remember the last time I dried my dishes; they simply sit in the drainer overnight. But the weight and feel of the fabric? I bet most people wouldn’t even notice the difference. It’s all equally stable and functional. One more tool in my belt that I will need to use as I proceed. 😀

I started by weaving one towel with each of the six colors in the warp. As I wove I liked them all, the darks and the lights. But with a warp for eight, I had to pick two colors to repeat. Sure I could have used entirely different colors, but I didn’t have anything in my stash that I thought worked well with everything. I ended up doing a second towel each in the goldenrod and natural. And honestly? When all are finished these ended up being my favorites for sure.

I feel like there is a lot to learn, a lot of creativity left in the Ms & Os structure, and so have a third towel warp, again designed slightly differently, measured out and ready to beam. But I plan to stop there and give my customers something more like my rainbow blocks. At least that’s what I’m thinking at the moment. Only time will tell, though. Stay tuned…you may be the first to know. 😉