Threadbare Designs - a Weaver's Journey

What a fun name!  I'm not even sure whether it's pronounced bum-ber-et or bum-ber-ay, though I prefer the latter.  Either way, what a quick weave, and the towels have a nice texture to them.  These are the first towels that I've woven using Maurice Brassard 8/2 cotton, and I really enjoyed using it. The colors aren't as vibrant as 10/2 mercerized yarn, but it has a much better feel to it than the 8/2 unmercerized cotton from Halcyon. That yarn has quite a rough texture.

As you can see, I ended up with 6 towels instead of the 4 that were expected, so BONUS!  I also have a bit of scrap that I'll be able to use for something, I'm sure.  I wove 2 towels using 2 different shades of purple;



Two from a black cotton;


and 2 from black cottolin. Although that yarn was 8/2, it seemed a bit thicker, and so the towels have a different feel to them.



When you look at a closeup of the cloth, you can see a small pattern that seems to remind me of cloven hooves, for some reason…

Well, the draw for the wrap was a flop.  No takers, so it's gone into the bin until someone decides they want it.  I don't have any others in stock at the moment, so eventually it will go, I hope.  I've yet to list it in my Etsy shop, but plan to soon.

The cowls had a much warmer reception, with two of the three being sold.  All that is left is the lighter-colored one, woven with natural-colored weft.  That is listed on my chatter page on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1657157491162412/ - along with a couple of inkle bands.

This morning I wet-finished the second wrap, woven with black 8/2 tencel as weft.  I love how the colors pop!  I hope to take photos later today, so look for them in the next post.  The final length is 4.35 meters, so it is longer than the other wrap.  Not sure whether I'll list it in a draw, or just straight up for sale.  I have to work over the next two days, so it probably won't be listed until Sunday or Monday.  I still have to s…

Most of the cloth from the wrap warp is wet finished, sewn, tagged and ready to go!  Presently, the shorter of the two wraps is complete.  It was woven with the same blue yarn as the body of the warp, so all cotton.  The length ended up being 3.69 meters long, and 28" wide (why the length in meters but not the width, I do not know!), which makes it a size 4.

The middle section:

right selvedge:


left selvedge:
I loved these rolled shots!



I love how the few shots of bright color pop!

I will be discounting this wrap a bit, as there were a few places where I was, erm, a bit overenthusiastic with my beat, as well as makeing one mistreadling.  The areas are visible but subtle - here are a couple of shots.



How can you mess up 1-2-3-4??  Anyway, this will be going up for a draw this weekend, I think.  I'd do it today, but have to work for the next 2 days and so will be away from my computer.

The other wrap pieces are almost set. The ring sling is just waiting on the rings to arrive to…

Another year has come and gone, and yet again I am astounded by how quickly the time goes by.  I know there is a mathematical reason for this, or so they say:  if you are 5 years old, one year is a fifth of your life, so a very large chunk.  If you are 50, it is one fiftieth, and so a mere snippet.  I don't know if that is truly the one and only reason; it may have something to do with perception, experience, etc, but it is almost scary how quickly the days/weeks/months go by.

I now have the Twilight warp off the loom!  On the 16/5 yard warp I managed to weave 2 wraps, one ring sling, 3 cowl pieces, and a bit of scrap.  The best news is, after all of the repairs I had to do in the beginning, I had very few problems right until the end.  On two of the sections large clumps of very loose ends showed after the first wrap.  They looked as if they built up against the rakes and so were not tensioned well.  I was in dread, waiting for those ends to come off the beam and wreak havoc, but…