Towels Debrief

I wasn't just sitting by the phone all this time; I also sat on the loom bench, and the towel warp is done. I'm not too impressed with the quality of the pieces, though while weaving, things went swimmingly. Some thoughts:

1) I enjoyed weaving white. It may even have been the first time I wove true white. The hills and valleys of threads appearing on the loom was wonderful to watch; on dark rainy days it really lit up the whole room. Even if I may not want to produce a whole lot of white things, they can be used for dye/shibori projects, and weaving with whites made the prospective ideas come to life. (This is a color photo!)

But my fav is gray on white. This is l~o~v~e~l-y. Sorry for the bad weather, this, too, is a color photo.

Same wee piece, but with a little too much nonexistent hue.The weft is a soft, medium gray, so the truth is somewhere in between.

2) I like using towels I make, and may go on to weave bigger ones. The dust from cotton and cottolin is a bother, but I can plan these projects for times of the year when my nose won't be as bothered.

3) Drafts. I enjoyed trying out a small variety of similar drafts in different colors, which was part of what I wanted to do with these experiments. Normally, especially with cotton scarves, I prefer drafts in which patterns/shapes/colors bleed/blend into other areas; ones where shapes are not on a grid, e.g:

But where I used more saturated wefts, and eventually in any combination, I liked simple grid drafts, too, like these:

The next on the loom looked absolutely hideous but I went ahead to see what happens, and I'm glad I did because it was surprising in that it'd suit pieces where I want more distinct, clear designs, in large pieces. I was hoping to try this in 2/20 cotton at 42EPI, and when I get home I still will.

So, once again, hooray to sampling.

Lastly I wove four identical samples for Mom and her students to show varieties in 4-end twills, based on this draft: