Monday, April 27, 2015

Tea Towels Recap

Mum and I both forgot to write a blog about the finishing of the tea towels from February!  So this post is going to catch you up on both sets of tea towels.  

To remind you Mum choose to do a striped warp in greys, stone, taupe and navy blue.  Here is a link to the old post. There are six tea towels and each towel has a different woven pattern and weft.  There are two red tea towels that are the same colour but different dye lots.   The burgundy coloured one is woven in squares.  For Sale.
The other one is wine red.  For Sale.
The two green tea towels are also the some colour but from different dye lots.  The tea towel with the square pattern is slightly darker in colour.  For Sale.
Then the other one.  For Sale.
The two navy towels are the same colour but they have different patterns.  

My four pretty periwinkle tea towels wove up so quickly!  I didn't take any in progress photos, oops.  Here is a link to the old post.
As the tea towels have nine stripes in pale blue, lilac, green and peach in the warp I choose not make a plaid border, I think that it would have been too busy.
The four tea towels are very lovely.  For Sale.
The Garden shot is a dwarf rhododendron with pink candles and white flowers (Rhododendron yakushimanum)

Friday, April 3, 2015

Eight Shaft Twill Tea Towels

Lately I have two main weaving goals forefront in my mind when planning a new project.

 *The first is the ever demanding stash reducer ~ what I weave MUST use something out of the stash.
*The second is that what I weave should be something that I can sell.

After all these years of weaving I have more table linens and scarves than one person can reasonably use, and since for some reason I continue to make mistakes; (what is with that?)  I’m constantly adding to them!

This project filled both criteria quite nicely and with some panache too!  Digging deeply into the 2/8 unmercerized cotton I found 12 ounces of marine blue and 8 ounces of lime ~ the perfect amount for 4 tea towels ~ just.  I must admit that it is getting harder and harder to make sense of the bits and bobs I have left, but I'm determined to hold off buying more as long as possible!
I pulled a warp of 5 yards in length and 24 inches wide which will make just 4 tea towels.
I wanted to make a graphically strong statement and I think I’ve succeeded with this pattern of curly stars which appear in all four corners of the towel.  To ensure that I had enough marine for all 4 towels I’ve made 6 stripes of lime on either side which really makes a bold statement.
I wove 4 pattern repeats, then added a cotton sewing thread to mark my hem turn under.  I find that this really helps when you are finishing the towels. Then I wove 7 pattern repeats before starting the six alternating lime and navy stripes .  I love how bold the stars appear!
So far I have woven two of these tea towels, but a bout of surgery has slowed me down somewhat.  A couple of weeks ago I had laser surgery on my kidneys to nuke a few stones and although it went well; the stent they left behind is giving me lots of grief right now.  Hopefully, it won’t be with me long and I can get on with weaving.
The garden photo this time is of Magnolia soulangeana 'Little Girl ~ Susan'  commonly called a Saucer Magnolia.  This is a dwarf variety of the cultivar and the flowers look far to big for the wee tree!