Well I had a lot of fun this week…I used up bobbins! Before I start weaving a project I usually sample for a few inches…or more. And I test out which colors work best…sometimes the color I planned for the weft really does not go…color blending in weaving is tricky…it’s not like blending paint colors it’s more like pointillism…tiny dots of color that show up differently depending how far away from the weaving you are. Anyway…I test out colors and end with a bunch of half filled bobbins. And then I finish a project I have left over bobbins. And this keeps happening….so I did a couple of bobbin eliminating projects …it was either that, or order more bobbins! So I gathered all the 8/2 bobbins that I thought would go with my towel warp, and some almost empty cones…I was kinda curious what would go with the variegated stripe…just so I would know for future weaving…so I ended up weaving 13 coordinated towels, but they are all just a little bit different…and now I have 25 Empty bobbins!

I knew I needed about 5 filled bobbins to weave each towel, so i divided my towel into thirds…two thirds a main color, then a dividing stripe, then the remaining third a different color. I laid out my filled bobbins at the start of each towel and then just wove! Lots of fun! Six of these are destined for gifts, and the remaining seven will go into my stock pile for my holiday sales.

Here is my new stockpile of empty bobbins! Whoo hoo!

Oh! I have another photo….we all know that we need to take into consideration shrinkage when we weave..but I never realized exactly what was happening the first time I washed my 8/2 towels…her are two identical towels…one just off the loom, the other, hemmed, then washed and ironed, ready to sell…it’s kinda dramatic! I lost 4 inches in length and 2 inches in width just in the washing machine, then hemming shorted them up a bit more. I think I will weave the next set two inches longer.

Measurement off the loom: 31.5 x 19.25

Washed and hemmed: 25x 17.25

I really love this pattern! And using a bunch of coordinated colors kept me entertained!

I think I will try to write up the pattern also and see if anyone would like to buy the draft. Here are some photos of the finished towels! This is my new favorite towel pattern!

The Michigan Fiber fest was this past weekend. I got to go shopping with one of my friends on Friday! we always have such a fun time! This is my haul!

Starting at the top and going in a circle…two handled rovings that will turn into the base color for some hand knit hats…hopefully I can get that spun before we leave for Alaska in mid September, A blue and gold mini roving 50/50 merino and silk from Barb Lambrecht…and two mini one ounce skeins of silk also from Barb…construct colors for hats, a bottle of Soak, because I used up my old bottle, A new shuttle from Kennich looms of michigan…I love their shuttles, the bar that holds the bobbin makes it so easy to pop a new bobbin in, it lifts out entirely, a skein or raw silk..also from Barb..I think it’s going into a silk shawl…striped..I would like to have it in the warp, but it’s single ply…so we will see, a skein of light brown merino/silk/yak….800 yards soft as butter! two cones of linen in dark gray….and a larger cone of black 20/2 silk all from the Miller girls. That was my haul! Lots of fun projects coming up and look at those colors!

I also finished up the MD scarfs this week…I wove a green scarf..which was In My last post, then I did a blue scarf..same design…but then I got bored and looked at my stash of Zephyr filled bobbins and did this scarf in very fall masculine colors…It was so fun to weave, I would choose the colors for eight inches, advance the warp so I could see a three inches of the last sequence and then choose my bobbins for the next 8 inches…it’s really a nice scarf! And I got some more empty bobbins!

Since two of the scarfs had short fringe I had a bit of extra warp on my loom so I wove a sample using just three colors…it’s a really nice sample…I think I might do a series of scarfs in this pattern…they would be quick,and I have a bunch of blue bobbins to use up..

Today I plan to clean up my mess in my studio, there’s always a clutter when I finish a project and now both my looms are empty. But I have one project that’s ready to be wound and started…a spaced warp shawl. Linen warp, silk weft, shawl. I will have photos for you next week!