My brain is done frying.

 I guess since the brain fry towels are done, my brain should be done frying now, too!

 

 

 Here are the 5 of the 2nd treadling pattern that I think turned out the best:

I love the texture of this weave after I re-did the treadling!

These shadows help capture the texture even better.

The towels are soft, yet the texture is a little scratchy... but in a good way!

This is how I ended up finishing all the towels.  I used my newest invented technique of serging the edges and folding them over once.  Then I tuck in the corners so they can be covered and not fray.

I probably should have used black thread, but I got a little lazy.

I absolutely love them!

Off the loom!

They're off!  And as I was taking them off, they caught the light in a neat way, so I took a picture of it.  I figured that after they get washed, they probably won't look like this because all the little spaces will fill in!  I wonder what the texture will be like though.  I love this texture, it hopefully will only get better with a trip through the washer and dryer!

pattern changes

This is what I have basically changed the pattern treadling to do.  I love it so much more!  I can't wait to get these towels off the loom and wash them up.  I think the texture will only improve with washing!

I keep thinking of neat experiments I should do with colors.  One of them that I want to try is to take all these blues again and start warping for the next project, but as I go, drop one thread and replace it with something on the opposite side of the color wheel and keep doing that until when I get to the other side of the warp, it is completely different.  That might be kind of neat!

Even easier, even better

I have decided to change gears on the advancing twill towels....

 

I am treadling treadles #2 and #4 repeatedly and I am loving it!!!

(I love how these 4 threads are clumped together with 2 threads of plain weave in-between!)

 

 I love the texture,

 I love the weave,

(Notice how the warp looks more like the final project!  THIS is what I had in mind in the beginning!)

  

I love the design,

and I love how brainless it is!!!

 This is definitely it! 

Too bad I’m half way through this warp already!

ToO mUcH... FuN?

I think I had a little too much fun weaving and playing with Photoshop elements!  But one thing is for sure, I sure do feel more relaxed than I did before I was able to play with both of these!  School continues to be very hard stressful, but after spring break basketball season will be over and that will give me some more evening time.

 

  

It's probably hard to tell what the colors look like exactly, so I promise that I will post some regular pictures soon!  Picture #4 comes very close to the real thing though.  The warp (pic 3) looks very blue, but with the very light weft, they are much more washed out and white than I was expecting.  The towels are also a little more weft-faced than I was expecting.  I am still enjoying them, and they certainly are a different kind of weave, but I think I like 2/2 twill better.  I am curious as to what these towels will look like when I wash them up!

More Brain Fry

The brain fry weave towels are progressing right along.  I think I have been putting too much muscle into the beating of them because they were really squished looking, so I lightened it up quite a bit.
 

It's not quite what it looked like in the book.  They are pretty neat looking, but I think the magic will be in the washing on this one!  

Brain Fry

I have been working so hard these last few months.  In fact, I think this is the hardest I've worked in a long time!  It's not anything physically exerting, but more mental exertion.  I do like staying busy this time of the year because the first few months of the year are not my favorite.  In fact, January and I have never really gotten along at all.  And February?  Well, the only two good points are the fact that my b-day month is Feb and also the fact that everyday the sunrise is one minute earlier and the sunset is one minute later.  Trust me, it has taken me years to find that second good thing about February!

Anyway, back to being busy.  Between January and February, I picked up several extra jobs at school.  I have been score-keeping the girls' home basketball games and the 7/8th graders play so hard that the games seem to go on forever.  Also, I have been subbing on Fridays for a teacher who recently lost her mother unexpectedly.   Usually we don't work Fridays, but at our school we have an intervention program for the kids who are struggling in the classroom.  Trust me, having 10-15 of the most struggling students cooped up in school on a day that is normally off is just.... well, I actually don't know how to describe it!  It's probably the makings of a future post traumatic stress disorder, especially considering I see all their little faces when I close my eyes to go to sleep!  So between the subbing and the in-services, I haven't had a Friday off in awhile and it's becoming a little mentally frustrating!


On Friday evenings when I'm done for the week, I spend a large amount of time staring off into space just figuring out what the heck just happened!  Lately I have been wanting to explore more doubleweave, and I have a long list of things I want to do, but they all take too much thought.  I just want something that is brain-less and made up on the spot.  I can't stand planning right now when my life is all about planning!  So for this project, I am kind of using a few old ideas I have tucked away, a few new ideas I have gathered, and just going with the flow.  In fact, I don't know what I want to do with this warp, but I'm measuring it out already!  I know I want some dishtowels, but I'm unsure of the design right this minute.  It will come to me when my brain is done frying!

So, here are my thoughts for the 496 threads that are already measured:

Advancing twill on page 207 of The Handweaver's Pattern Directory.  If sett is 30, then towels will be 16.5" across.

Huck lace on page 167 of the same text.  If sett is 24, then towels will be 20.6" across.

 Can't wait to try either of them out!