Woven Bookmarks

I'm trying an experiment to prepare for Christmas 2011.  I know, a bit early but that's just me!  I'm such a planner... as Brian always reminds me.

For Christmas cards, I need something small that I can make both quickly and in mass quantities or else I get a little bored with the tediousness of it.  So after an experiment with something else that didn't go so well last weekend (hence the lack of pictures of that project) I decided this year to maybe try bookmarks to put on my Christmas cards.

Weaving bookmarks one at a time didn't feel like I would utilize the loom to its capacity.  Instead, I decided to try something I saw on another blog where you weave a whole bunch at once then sew the ends and trim apart.  So far, it's a lot of fun to try some new designs and let my feet, shuttle, and mind explore and create together in an untethered-to-the-patterns kind of way.

Next time they will have more Christmas colors mixed in! 

Threads of Feeling

This website has a neat slide show.  It is a presentation about the 18th century textiles and tokens left with abandoned babies at the London Foundling Hospital.  Pretty neat see and ponder!

Today my personal library is that much more complete!

When I saw this book at our public library, I knew I wanted it in my collection:

This is a picture of the CD, but I liked the original 1981 published book way more than the 1995 version, so I spent awhile searching the internet for a copy. Prices ranged from in the $70's to hundreds of dollars! Yikes...

Well, I finally found on on Alibris, but after I ordered it the seller canceled the order the next day. :(

So my search continued and I found one on amazon for the same price!  It finally came in the mail today, and it came from the next town over. I'm gong to have so much fun with this one! I already started playing with it a little bit with the Earth-toned towels in brown and green. But there are hundreds of patterns that I want to try in 4-shaft... and of course lots of 8-shaft patterns for some day!

I can't believe some of the prices of the older books. I have my eye on three more of them, but they are worth quite a bit of money.

My birthday scarf

I got some great wool when we were in Washington at Christmastime. I really wanted to make myself a scarf, so on my birthday a few weeks later I warped the loom with this:



I love plaids, especially in such energizing colors like teal and orange!!



I love it so much!! But unfortunately the weather is getting warmer now so I'll have to put it away for now.

The Towel Exchange

A few years ago I came across a website that had a towel exchange on it. The exchange sounded like a lot of fun, but I didn't feel like I was good enough at weaving to participate in it. But this year when I got the bigger loom I finally felt like I could do this! Luckily it was up and running again. Here is their website. There are a lot of beautiful towels posted from the years past that I find inspiring.

This is the set of towels I made. I used a summer/winter pattern with an orange and white warp:



Here are the patterns, if you're interested:






This is my most favorite towel. Since I keep 1 towel from each set that I weave, I decided to keep this one, although the choice was definitely hard!


Here is a picture of all the towels that were in the exchange. Mine are in the upper left corner!




And here are the beautiful towels In received in the mail. They are so nice! Some were made on 4-shaft looms so I can make duplicates. Others were made on 8-shaft looms, so I can have something to look forward to! And a few were made on 16-shaft looms... WOW! I can't even imagine that one...


Here's a closer look at all 6 of them:

1. 4-shaft pattern called "Friendship Towel in Huckaback" from Paula in Shasta Lake, CA:


2. A 16-shaft pattern from handweaving.net from Laurie in Roseville, MN:


3. A 16-shaft pattern from Amy L. in Minot, ND:


4. 8-shaft pattern called "Dogwood Towels" by Joanie in Ukiah, CA:


5. 4-shaft Huckaback pattern from Laurie in West Glenville, NY:

6. 4-shaft M&O's pattern by Laurie in South Dartmouth, MA:


These towels are so pretty that I don't even want to use them as towels! I feel so inspired looking at the quality work and choices of colors and types of yarns. I am also so excited to have some 8-shaft and 16-shaft patterns and towels!! Someday I hope to at least have an 8-shaft loom!

Colors on the honeycomb weave

I'm trying some new colors with the honeycomb weave. I'm trying some browns, oranges, and yellow-greens that I found in my stash. I think they go well with this shade of blue! I'm looking forward to seeing how they turn out. I'm done weaving the length I needed for my project, so the rest will be woven for me as dishtowels. I love dishtowels!

The Honeycomb experiment

This is the first time I have ever woven honeycomb. I'm very excited! I decided to document all the steps. So here's the adventure that takes a few days all put into just a few minutes of pictures!

The very first step is to get your idea and pattern. Then comes the warping and weaving fun!

Go through the stash and pick the yarns:

Measure it on the warp board, thread the reed, and then the heddles... This part usually takes ALL day long!



Wind it on. (It looks like it's melting off!)

Tie it on the front and make sure it's nice and tight and even:



Make sure you tie up the pedals according to the pattern!

Wind your shuttles and weave away!!



Finish the edges with a hemstitch:


Cut off a small portion and finish it to make sure you like it before weaving yards and yards of it! Look at those beautiful cells that develop after washing:



What will it be? Stay tuned for more updates! Maybe I'll be done with it soon!

Earthy towels

Made 9 of these towels! I love the colors! This was total play time project... I warped the loom and let my imagination soar.

Stats: 12/2 unmercerized cotton, 9 yard warp
4 waffle weave, 2 textured, and 3 twill

Bookmarks!