Handwoven Rainbow Black Towels

I finished the towels! These may be my favorite so far. The rainbow colors against the black background remind me of stained glass. 10/2 cotton, hand-hemmed, 16"x24".

My only regret is not having wound a longer warp! I was low on the black 10/2 cotton, so I only wound an 8 towel warp. Thankfully, I've restocked, so I can weave some more!

Handwoven Chocolate

OK, so it's not as tasty as REAL chocolate, but these scarves are delicious in their own way, and calorie-free!

I used a favorite handpainted yarn - Fairy Dust yarn from Enchanted Knoll Farm, in the "Tiger Eye" colorway - comprised of superwash wool, nylon, and sparkle. I warped the Saori loom with enough length for two scarves, one shorter, one longer.

I wove the first shorter one with a caramel brown bamboo, hemstitched it and twisted the fringe. It's 5.5" x 45" with 3.5" fringe on each end. I call it "Chocolate Caramel":

The second longer scarf I wove with a spice tencel, hemstitched it and twisted the fringe. It's 5.5 x 72" with 3.5" fringe on each end. I call it "Spicy Chocolate":

I'm really pleased with the look and feel of both scarves. I hope you can see the sparkle - I took a zillion pictures trying to capture it. I'm glad I have more of this lovely yarn in my stash!

Handwoven Handspun Silk Amethyst Scarf

I spun this purple silk yarn last year, and it's been marinating in my stash waiting for its moment.

This week, I warped it on my Saori loom. I wove it with a tencel yarn in 'eggplant'.

I am so pleased with the way it turned out!







I'm pulling out my stash of silk fiber this afternoon - I see a lot more handspun silk scarves in my future!

SAORI Carnival Scarves

Here are a couple of Saori scarves I wove this past weekend - they're just perfect for our Mardi Gras carnival celebrations here in New Orleans.

I warped 5.5 yards for two scarves using 10/2 and 6/2 cotton, rayon boucle, cotton boucle, and novelty monster yarn from outer space. I wove one with a purple 6/2 cotton and the other with a periwinkle 6/2 cotton. I love how they turned out - they're light, with lots of drape, yet warm. They can be gathered or spread - either way, there's loads of color and texture. Each scarf is 70" long, 7" wide, with 7" of knotted fringe on each end.

First the purple:

And the periwinkle:

These were a lot of fun to weave, and they'll be a lot of fun for someone to wear!

Mile 1, and Huck Rainbow Stripes Towels

I started off my walking program, and added a little widget in the sidebar to keep track of miles walked this year. My goal is 365 - one for every day (though I know sometimes I'll miss a day, and some of my walks will be more than a mile). Today's mile was on the treadmill, since it's gloomy and has been threatening rain all day. Still, yay mile!

Got my thick 'n' thirsty Huck Rainbow Stripes towels handhemmed and ready for the shop. I'm super-pleased with the thickness of these towels - they'll be nice for handtowels in the bath as well as in the kitchen. The 6/2 cotton washed up nice and squishy. 24" x 16" each. I gave one as a Christmas gift and have 8 left.

I was thinking about buying a corkboard bulletin board for Goal #4 (setting up a planning board for upcoming weaving projects) but then I thought, "Why buy something, when I could make something from what I've already got around the house?" I have some thick cardboard and some older wrapping paper that's not in good enough shape to use for packages. I'll put together a cute board, hang it on the wall, add some pushpins, and Bob's your Uncle. Free planning board!

Handwoven Gold Waterfall

Here's the first project on my new Saori loom, though I didn't weave it Saori-style. I've had this rayon/silk yarn for awhile - I got it from a Ravelry destash, and have been petting it for months, trying to decide how best to use it. I decided to use tencel as its weft, and wove a shawl as my Saori loom's first effort.  I love how the finished shawl turned out - after hemstitching, twisting the fringe, giving it a gentle wash, and a good pressing, it has fantastic drape and shine.







The shawl/wrap is a generous 75" x 14", with 6" handtwisted fringe on each end. The rayon/silk was divine to weave. I think I need to get some more!

All Hemmed Up and Ready To Go!

There were 14 towels altogether in this last batch - from a 13 yard warp. Each towel is 16"x24" and handhemmed. My daughter insisted that we keep one for our kitchen. :) The other 13 are ready for their new homes. This was a fun project, and now I'm ready for the next one!

More Scarves - Picture Roundup

As you know, I'm not terribly fond of the photography side of weaving. I could skip it altogether if I didn't want to show them to you and to list them in my shop. Alas, it's a necessary evil. Maybe I could add "joy in photography" to my Christmas list!

Here's the Advancing Twill scarf I wove in an early November workshop. It's two colors of 8/2 bamboo, and I really like the feel/hand of the bamboo fabric. It's silky and soft with great shine, similar to tencel. This one is 64" x 9", with hemstitching and handtwisted 6" fringe on each end.

Next up is a pair of tencel scarves that I wove in October, woven on the same warp - variegated purple/blue/green tencel, with a navy tencel weft for one and a black tencel weft for the other. Both scarves are 64" x 9", with hemstitching and handtwisted 6" fringe on each end.

Black tencel weft

Black tencel weft

Navy tencel weft

Navy tencel weft

And finally, two chenille scarves that I wove for my sister-in-law. I'd hoped to see her at Thanksgiving, but she wasn't able to attend our family feast, so they're being mailed. I wove this in plainweave at 16 epi/ppi, and gave them the "tennis ball treatment" in the dryer after washing. They're buttery kitten soft.

I'm weaving on the rainbow dishtowels today - I've got 4 done (2 pink, 2 teal) and am working on #5. I'm hoping to have them all woven by Friday so I can start the hand-hemming. Fun!

Fotography Friday

Forgive the spelling - I couldn't resist. :)

I've got such a backlog of weaving and spinning to photograph - I'm trying to play a little catch-up here!

I've got 2 scarves and a table runner to show you - they've all been finished for awhile, but haven't had their beauty shots until now...

Handwoven Purple Illusion - this is a shadow weave scarf, woven with 10/2 in two different shades of purple:

Handwoven Northern Lights Scarf, woven in a faux-faux-ikat style - the warp is "fairy dust" yarn from Enchanted Knoll Farm, with a lovely subtle sparkle, and the weft is tencel:

Handwoven Overshot Runner, in 10/2 cotton and 5/2 cotton:

And for reading this far, your reward is a sneak peak of the warp I'm winding for the NEXT batch of random rainbow towels:

This is 1/5 of the warp - with a 13 yard warp, I can only fit so many threads (110) on the warping mill before it cries "I'm full, I'm full!" So I chain it off, set it aside, and start a new bout. This warp will be 5 chains, since I need 550 threads for these towels.

Handwoven Huck Rainbow Towels, Finished!

I finally got them all hand-hemmed and photographed! I must confess, the picture-taking is my least favorite thing in the entire process... I'd much rather be weaving! I ended up with 14 towels altogether - 2 of them are reserved for my kitchen, the other 12 went right into the Etsy shop (and as of this afternoon, 8 are already gone - Edit: oh, my! All 12 towels are gone!!!). I wove pairs - 2 pink, 2 purple, 2 navy, 2 teal, 2 burgundy, and 2 black. They're 16" x 24" and nicely textured with the huck structure.

Fun to weave, fun to use! I only have handwoven towels in my kitchen now, in all sorts of colors and structures. They add whimsy and pleasure to the otherwise joyless job of doing the dishes. :)

I may have to wind another dishtowel warp soon... I miss throwing that shuttle! (Edit: since they're all gone so fast, I've started winding a new rainbow warp tonight!)

Handwoven SAORI Blue

I have so much catching up to do - the fall sweater's body is done and I'm knitting the sleeves, I've finished the tencel twill scarves and the shadow weave scarf, and I've spun several skeins of yarn - but the only thing I've got photographed right now is the SAORI Blue shawl/wrap/scarf:

I used mixed cottons, bamboo, rayon, and fun novelty yarns in both the warp and weft. I love weaving Saori - it's "no rules, just fun!"