Weaving A Gem Of A Life

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. 😉

Although I said in my last post that I wasn’t going to share info about what I’m weaving for my 2021 Christmas cards, I changed my mind. After all, it’s not like they’re gifts that need to be kept secret. Besides there’s a ton of info to share. This warp has been, ummmmmmm, problematic. If my experiences can help someone else avoid the same mistakes, great. Or if I revisit this post in the future to avoid the mistakes, also good.

So I started with a draft I’d seen someone else weave online. It appears that it came from someone (Dawn?) on Ravelry, but I’m not positive about that. In any case, it is certainly reminiscent of candy canes, so seemed perfect to me. I didn’t have the bright, saturated colors I wanted so decided I’d just go to my local craft store and buy a few balls of crochet cotton.

I went online and gathered information. That was Mistake #1. The site I found told me that Aunt Lydia’s size 10 crochet cotton was roughly 1,900 yards per pound.

So I determined a sett of 21 ends per inch and calculated what I’d need to make my cards. That was Mistake #2.

In my inexperience with crochet cotton, I thought it was all mercerized. Mistake #3.

I planned out my warp carefully. I wanted to warp it wide enough to weave 3 cards across. So I put extra white threads in between some of the candy cane stripes to leave me enough room to cut them apart.

The night after I had the warp beamed I was in bed and suddenly realized I had made a major error in my warp calculations. I wanted to warp for 30 cards, but my math went wonky, and I’d put on enough warp for 90! Mistake #4. Oh well, the yarn was cheap enough. I’d weave it all – only 120″ after all – and maybe I’d get an idea to do something else with the extra.

Now I’m threading the loom, and I can feel that this yarn isn’t mercerized at all. (See Mistake #3.) Not sure why I didn’t notice this in the prior steps, but I hadn’t. The craft store didn’t have enough white in Aunt Lydia, so I bought mostly South Maid #10. I could see it was the same size, and thought it was the same. Wrong! We’re up to Mistake #5.

It’s okay. The yarn doesn’t have to be mercerized for the cards. So I lashed on to the front apron and started weaving. WHAT?!?! This sett of 21 is WAY too loose. Mistake #6.

So I cut it off and resleyed to 24 ends per inch. Lashed on again and started weaving, enough to know that 24EPI would work. But wait! Now the width of the warp went from 12″ wide to 10.5″ wide. Could I still get 3 cards across? If not, my layout was all wrong. I spent some time looking at things carefully, and decided that I could, if I was really careful with my stitching and cutting, get 3 cards across, but only if I added some white threads at each selvedge. I guessed that 8 at each side would do it and measured out my threads. I cut off the 6 or so inches I’d already woven, threaded the new ends, sleyed the reed, and decided to tie on instead. For me it’s a bit quicker than lashing and I don’t need to worry about using up too much warp length – I have plenty.

About this time I did what I should have done at the beginning. I used my McMorran yarn balance to measure the yards per pound of this yarn – almost 3,000. No wonder 21 EPI was too loose!

Time to get back to weaving. Now I’ll tell you that I have never been successful at adding more than a thread or two on the selvedges without problems. I don’t know how other weavers manage it. The weights on my warp are either too heavy and pull the ends too tightly to make a straight fell line, or they’re too loose and the edges are wobbly. I fiddle and adjust and try again. I weave slowly and mess with the threads constantly. I put on my homemade temple in an attempt to help. Nothing works and I am very frustrated. I think we’re on Mistake #7 now.

The selvedge is loose, lumpy, and wavy. I could handle the waviness as it would be hidden in the card, but the lumpiness would present a problem. And the weaving was going very slowly as I attempted various strategies to correct it. Finally I had to walk away from the loom.

Last night I decided the best thing to do was to once again cut off what I’d woven, this time about 18″, pull the remaining warp forward through the heddles and reed, tie the 16 new ends on the back beam, and re-beam it all with the same tension. I did that this morning and weaving FINALLY went smoothly.

When I ran out of the South Maid yarn and started on the Aunt Lydia’s, I immediately saw that Aunt Lydia is mercerized; South Maid is not. See Mistake #5.

Today I got the rest of the warp, about 90″, woven, washed, dried, and pressed. The machine stitching, cutting, and card making remain to be done. I wonder how many more mistakes I can make during that process.

Oh yeah – I got my Better Than Peeps towels up in my Etsy store. Thanks to ever-supportive family & friends, I’ve already sold 3.