Heading for the countdown

If you looked only at the fact that I haven’t posted in a month, you might think I haven’t been doing anything. You’d be wrong.

However a lot of my time has been spent making gifts, and I didn’t want to spend even an hour of potentially productive time sitting at my computer and blogging. Of course, I can’t share anything about my holiday makes until after Christmas.

I FINALLY got things finished and yesterday went to the post office with four packages going to other states, so here I am.

I did weave another run of towels. As mentioned in my last post, I had a customer want 4 towels in a very traditional, simple straight twill. My neighbor tagged on with 1 more, so I decided to wind a warp for 12 towels, with 7 able to go into my Etsy shop. In typical fashion for me, every towel is a little different. Because I don’t have much else I can talk about right now, I’ll show you all 12 towels.

I guess I didn’t take individual images of these, but here’s a 12 second video of the 4 towels my customer requested.

And apparently I can only show you 11. I guess I didn’t take a photo of the towel my neighbor bought. I was needing to get these towels done so I could move on to my Christmas gift making. But here are the remaining 7, individually, in photos I took for listing in my Etsy shop.

I called this one Sunrise. The majority of the weft is a cotton flake that’s a bit heavier than the 8/2 warp, so this towel is very thirsty although it may not fit inside a glass to try it quite as well. I chose yellow and red for its solid end stripes

Sticking with the variegated theme, this one, called Crayons, is also woven primarily with a cotton flake, but this one is a bunch finer than the 8/2 warp. Basic red and blue are the complementary stripes. Interestingly, the size difference didn’t seem to matter in either of these towels. For years – decades – I was so careful not to mix the sizes of yarns I used in a given piece; I’m only now learning what I can and cannot do successfully.

In honor of the season, this one, simply called Red, looks traditional in every sense of the word to me. I just used the same natural for the three end stripes. I particularly like it.

Since one red one wasn’t enough for me, I chose a darker color and wove Cranberry with pink stripes. Personally, I still prefer Red, above.

Then I moved to colors that aren’t necessarily my go-to colors, but I thought others would like. Here is Sage, with goldenrod stripes. Nice, soft colors that will look perfect in someone’s kitchen, I’m sure.

For this towel I used some handpainted (not by me) bamboo-cotton blend yarn I’ve had in my stash for quite a while. Turquoise, with the stripe a coordinating blue-green-purple variegation dyed to coordinate.

And last, this is Clouds, woven in light and medium gray. The one my neighbor chose was medium gray with black and natural end stripes.

The day after I posted these towels on Etsy, a TOTALLY AMAZING customer of mine, a woman who had already purchased 17 towels from me since mid-October, bought two of this batch. HOLY COW!!!!

Did I do anything else to report? Yes, I sent out a few dozen Christmas cards, using those I made last March. Remember them? You saw the weaving, but not the finished cards. I have only one more, which I will hand to a friend.

I do plan on making cards for 2022, again, in February or March; I’d never have the time in November or December.

Now that all that is done, I am moving on. Making things for people I don’t know. Wonder what that’s about? I’m knitting mittens, specifically 2-needle mittens using worsted weight acrylic yarn and size 5 needles using a vintage pattern from the 50s. Once I have a several pairs, in a few sizes, I’ll put them in ziplock baggies and somehow (haven’t figured this step out yet) hang (?) them in a bus shelter not far from my house, with notes that anyone who needs a pair should take them. I plan to continue this, and maybe add hats, throughout the winter.

Parting shot – Jack got his first professional grooming in years, and he looks SOOOO much better than when I do it with scissors.