Handwoven Napkins - Chocolate Covered Cherries

I've participated in several weaving exchanges with the Jane Stafford Textiles group on Ravelry - we've done towels, placemats, and this spring we did napkins. The group chose lace as the structure, and 8/2 cotton as the yarn. I prefer a finer thread for napkins myself, but as I have plenty of 8/2 in stash, I decided to go with it.

I chose a light brown and a good medium red, and a 4-shaft draft from the Best of Handwoven: Atwater-Bronson Lace ebook. I wound the entire warp at once on my warping mill - I prefer doing that, rather than winding in smaller bouts.

On the loom and ready to go! This is my Macomber loom from the back - you can see my hanging metal harnesses and inserted eye heddles.

The lace blocks alternate with plainweave in an easy-to-remember repeat. I'm not a fan of changing weft colors so often - those little end tails are tiresome to tuck in over and over!

The draft calls for a hem - I decided to hemstitch instead, and leave a 1" fringe. I think it adds a nice touch. Ready for mailing!

They're on their way to Canada, where the coordinator will sort out all the napkins received and send back an assortment. I'm looking forward to seeing the creativity of my fellow exchangers.

I'm planning to weave myself a few sets of napkins - our household is doing our best to move away from using disposable paper towels and napkins, and it's one step closer to my dream of weaving all our home textiles. My next set will be in finer/thinner cotton, and believe me, it won't have so many weft color changes!