Striped Star Towels

I did a couple of posts when I began these towels ages ago, and I actually finished the weaving and cut them off the loom in mid-August, but I finally got around to taking some photos of the finished product, so you can see them in all their adorableness.

As I have mentioned, they were woven in the cotton-linen blend that I still have too much of, in a 1/3 and 3/1 twill weave. If you look in the large white spaces between the stripes, you can see the classic diagonal lines of twill. 3/1 twill, incidentally, is the weave used for denim jeans, so even if you didn't realize it, you are very familiar with it.


The warp made four towels in total, but I gave one away, so there are only three in the photo. I am already planning another set, but this time with allover stars, in violet and undyed yarn. Finishing those might get my cotton linen stash down to a more reasonable amount...

Seeing Stars

Anyone who read yesterday's post might be wondering what I had up my sleeve with these towels. I have one word for you: stars!


If you look at the spot where the vertical purple stripes meet the horizontal purple stripes, you will see little four-pointed stars. Cool, huh.

Over halfway done weaving the first towel (and still enchanted by the way the stars appear, bit by bit, as I weave the purple rows.)

Weaving as Therapy

I got the worst cold this week -- it started with a sore throat and then I lost my voice, and got stuffed up, and now I'm in the coughing and dripping stage. Fortunately I've also had a few days off work, so I got to lay around a bit and feel sorry for myself, instead of having to pull it together and go out in public.


The same day that I came down with a cold, I started to sley the reed for a new weaving project. There have been lots of little hiccups along the way on this one: first I realized that I was two ends short, while I was threading the heddles, so I had to add two in and move everything over. Then I started winding on the warp and snapped two warp threads, so I had to redo those two and wind the warp again. I did, and then realized I had one more snapped, so had to undo it and redo it yet again. Fortunately I had time on my hands, so I could walk away when I got frustrated (often) and come back later when I felt calmer.

Since I have tons of the Cotton Linen blend from Valley yarns (that I used to make the Sunshine Plaid towels and my Wobbly Herringbone facecloths) I am making more towels. This is a set of four towels in undyed cotton/linen, with magenta stripes, and will follow it up with two or three more in a different design, in natural and violet.

The weaving doesn't look too impressive yet, I admit. Ignore the orange bit at the bottom - that's just the header, not part of the towels. Above that is the hem, in two parts, and then the towel itself. So far just stripes, right? You just wait and see.

Tantalizing Tanis Socks

As promised, a completed pair of socks.

From a pattern by Cat Bordhi: Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks (ravelry), knit from Tanis Fiber Arts' blue label sock yarn.


The linen stitch pattern was a bit tiresome by the end of the second sock, though it really wasn't any more work than a basic ribbing would have been. It was actually a fairly simple sock to knit, especially because I had worked from Cat's book before, so I understood some aspects of the construction better, this time.

You might be able to tell from the photo that there is a vertical strip of linen stitch coming down from the cuff, that grows wider to cover the whole instep of the sock. Then you knit an underheel and a couple of inches of foot and then a star toe. I am happy to report that it's a nice tall sock, too. While I was knitting the first one I kept thinking I couldn't possibly have enough yarn for a sock this tall, with my long wide feet to consider. After I finished the first sock, I weighed the sock and the remaining yarn to reassure myself that I could finish both. I was happy to find that I did have enough, so I wouldn't have to have two-coloured toes. I think it may have to do with the linen stitch using less yarn than stockingette would have. Also, I think the yarn is perfect for this sort of linen stitch, as it blurs the shades together a bit and softens the variegation.

More socks to come...

Weaving a Sampler

Knitters often complain about making gauge swatches, about wasting time and effort and yarn to make something that isn't part of the project itself. Personally, I do make them, because I think they're an important precursor to a successful project. Weavers have a sort of counterpart to this, in the form of a sample. A sample is a piece of cloth that is woven purely as an educational exercise, or as an experiment to see how a particular design will work in a particular yarn or colour combination, or at a particular sett (the measurement of threads per inch.)

It's funny how I'll knit my gauge swatches without complaint, or even knit all manner of useless and silly items just for the heck of it, but when it comes to weaving, I can't imagine weaving something that is just a sample. I can't imagine spending the time on something that I couldn't use, after it was finished.


After I came up with a few little variations on reverse twill, I wanted to try them out, but not knowing how they would look, woven, I didn't want to commit to something as big as a set of towels. I came up with a compromise between sampling and practical weaving, and decided to make six little eight-inch squares of six different patterns, to see how they looked, and then use them for facecloths. These are woven from the leftover cottolin from the Sunshine towels, using the orange and red for a subtle contrast in the design. The dark red part between the designs will be the hem, and the yellow line marks the cutting line between two facecloths. As you can see, I just finished one that was a fancy looking reversing twill design, and moved on to a simple herringbone. I can't wait to start using them!

Sunshine Plaid Towels

Just in time for holiday gifting, I finished my towels. There were three in total, and on Sunday night, I finished the weaving, zigzagged the hems, cut them apart, sewed the hems down, machine washed them, and then ironed them partially dry before laying them flat to dry overnight. Then on Monday morning, I folded one up and gave it away. Phew. The other two will be going to new homes, as well, which means I still won't know, firsthand, how well they will work to dry dishes. I will have to trust others' opinions on that, at least for now. I believe I mentioned previously that I have more of the cotton/linen blend that I will make more towels with, sometime soon. Perhaps I will keep some of those to try them out.

After washing, the fabric softened up and fluffed up, and now it has quite a nice soft hand. The selvedges evened up a bit, too, which is nice. While I was weaving, the warp threads along either side of the cloth were looser than the ones in the middle (despite me trying to fix this prior to weaving.) I was worried that the selvedges would end up wobbly because of it, but they looked okay off the loom and even better once washed. As per usual, finishing can hide many errors.


There were a few errors, alas, that I noticed on the underside of at least one of the towels, where a few warp threads were skipped and left a little block of threads. I think it gives the towels character. It certainly proves they were handmade.

My biggest lesson with these towels was in changing weft colours (and frequently.) I mostly just wove in the starting tail in the next shed, but left the finishing tails hanging. I am a bit worried about it, since I don't know how well the cut ends will stay in place. I certainly don't want them developing holes along that selvedge, especially as they are gifts. I am placing my trust in more experienced weavers, who say that it will work out.

Overall, I did enjoy this pattern. The repetitive nature of the blocks kept me wanting to weave Just One More, and they also gave a way to gauge how far I had woven, without the fuss of trying to measure the cloth before it wound around the beam. I will, however, be taking a break from plaid to go back to something simpler (one colour in the warp, one in the weft) for some little facecloths in the leftover cotton/linen. I am going to sample a few patterns I invented, and see how they turn out. Then maybe back to the plaid for that woven blanket I had planned...?

Sunshine on the Loom

I decided a while ago to try my hand at weaving some dishtowels, so I found a draft on Webs and ordered the yarn to go with it, thinking I might give them away for the holidays.

The yarn is a nice cotton linen blend, so hopefully will make for nice thirsty towels, but I won't know that until I finish them and get them off the loom to give them a try. It's the first time I've woven with a linen blend, and I'm liking it so far. Linen can be tricky to weave with, apparently, especially in a pure linen yarn, since it is stiff. This yarn is half cotton and half linen, and while it has some of the stiffness and scratchiness of linen, it also has a lot of the softness and ease of cotton, so I am having a pretty easy time of it.


I chose four colours -- a nice bright yellow for the background, with red and orange and blue stripes. I was aiming for some bright primary colours to make some happy towels. The orange turned out to be a bit too close to the red (in the photo, the orange is the wide stripe on the side, and the red is in the narrower stripes. Clearly they are awfully close.) I'm also not so sure about putting the blue through the middle of the orange stripes. When it comes to colour planning, live and learn. Other than that, I think the design is turning out to be what I wanted -- happy and stripey and cool.

I am over halfway done the first of three towels. If they turn out well, I may just tie on another warp and make another set using some different colours. Or I may try something completely different, instead.