Luscious Hounds Tooth

  I really love the way this hounds tooth turned out!

   
I tried something new to try to make my weaving better.  I wound a towel onto the beam as the warp first wound on. I have noticed that my weaving often ends up with a U-shape because the nylon cords change the shape of the weave once it hits that area.  This towel really worked wonders!  I like how square my weaving ends up being.

On this warp I also made the edges different colors.  One side has black and one side has white.  Usually I make them both the same.  The reason why I did it differently this time though was because I ran the black yarn up the black side and the white yarn up the white side.  It really made it look better, not be too bulky, and not be too bright by having the opposite color.  I'll have to remember this for next time.

Time to wash.

Next time I'll cut and serge, and sew the edges!

Smaller is better

 Sometimes I feel like an evil scientist trying out my experiments!

 

Or a magician during a magic show... doing tricks!  "And now, for my next trick..."

I am really loving this 2/2 hounds tooth twill.  This current project is a 3 yard warp and it's made of 8/2 cotton from WEBS.  I'm having so much fun with it that I'm almost sorry I didn't discover this weave sooner!  I'm not even sure why it took me so long to try it, I think I just assumed it wouldn't be as good.  Yes, the hounds tooth design is smaller, but sometimes smaller is better!  It definitely has a good feel to the fabric being only 2/2.  The floats are only as long as 2 threads, but in the 8-shaft hounds tooth, the stretches are 4 threads long, and sometimes that is just too much space.  This cloth will certainly hold together well.  I should try redoing this design using something thick, like the worsted weight peaches and creme.  At one point, I made some place mats for my sister using 8-shaft hounds tooth in peaches and creme cotton, and yes, they were really cool.... but... they were also really loose because the floats were so long and you kind of have to mold them into place on the table and hope they will stay.

Sewing

I was able to get 7 pinwheel towels from my 6 yard warp!  That is how many I was hoping for, but wasn't sure if I could actually pull it off or not. 

They turned out really cute!

I've sold one of them, but I plan on keeping the rest for Christmas presents.  

I know they're not real Christmasy, but this means you can use it all year long!

More pinwheels!

This would make an awesome blanket but too bad my 8-shaft loom isn't wide enough, nor could it do an 8-shaft pattern with double weave.  If I want a blanket, I would have to make 2 panels and sew them together, which would be cool but a lot of work. 

This is weaving up rather quickly, plus I just had a nice long weekend to catch up some!  My list of "weaving to-do's" is a mile long, so I'm glad to almost be done with this so I can move onto the next big thing.

This design is very predictable and sometimes very boring... which isn't something I do very often!  I told Brian the other day that the only reason why I had so many looms for so long is because I often secretly hoped that he would take up weaving.  It would be interesting to see what he would design.  I have a feeling it would be very predictable, like this, and that is why he likes this pattern so much!  Well, the looms are sold now, so I guess if he wants to weave he'll have to fight me for my 8-shaft.

Classic

Pinwheels are my favorite classic design!

I used 2 shades of blues.  One is a very light blue that is almost white and one is a dark royal blue.

I like how they are not Christmas related, but they are going to be my Christmas gifts!  I like gifts that aren't too seasonal and can be used all year round.

I'm not sure if these will be for family or friends.  If I can get another set done, then these could be family or friends!  If it's only one set, then just family.  Sorry friends!  My energy is so limited!

Commencing

Measured warp... check.

Threading heddles... check.

Tied on... check.

Treadles tied-up.... check.

 

Bobbins wound... uncheck... 

Christmas towels

I am so behind this year.  Between jury duty and the first trimester of this pregnancy, I did pretty much nothing weaving related for about 4 months!  It was a weaving hiatus.  I know it's hard to believe because I kept the blog going, but if you know me real well, you would have figured out that those were my summer projects that were thinned out over time to make them last until a day that I could do this all again!  Thank goodness I am feeling so much better, the baby is doing well, and I just feel like I have my life back in order again!  By the way, did I mention that the baby has grown some legs, feet, and toes??!  You can see them in the top left corner. 

I even purchased my first baby clothes recently!  I bought 5 items for $7, thanks to some coupons that I received in the mail!  No wonder coupons are so popular and addictive!  Normally these items would have cost $42!

I can't believe that it's this late in the year and I have yet to start on my Christmas stuff for family and friends.  I may just be able to cover family this year, but we will see!  I hope to be able to weave for friends at work as well.  My first Christmas project is going to be a set of 8-shaft pinwheels.  It is one of my most favorite designs!  I chose two shades of blues, which blue is my most favorite color!  It has taken me a few days to get the warp measured and threaded into the reed, but at least I'm plugging away at it a little at a time!

Blues!

"Blues!"... And not the "sadness" kind!  It's actually the very, very happy kind!

Here is dark blue:

And you've seen light blue before, but I liked it so much I decided to do an entire section of it:

Here is what the backside looks like, in case you've been wondering all this time!

The backside has the opposite of the front, or horizontal floats while the side you've been seeing all this time has been vertical floats.  I like both sides!  They each have unique charm!

Off to another day of weaving!

This is the life!

I love to weave...
and there's no "April Fooling" there!  :-)

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!