Better Late than Never?

So waaaaaay back, over a year ago, I got home from Beginning Weaving Week at The Mannings and threw a scarf warp on the loom. Just so I could lock what I had learned into my brain.

Then I needed something else to put on the loom. And I froze.

Eventually, I decided to pull a column’s worth of threading off of the twill sampler that we had done in class. I did math and warped up the loom with eight yards of dishtowels.


Holy cow. These are a novice weaver’s first attempt at dishtowels. For reals.

Their flaws are many, but the learning curve is at least as great. The first three were cut off, intended for gifts. Then I got cold feet and decided they were not of gift quality. I was less than one towel into the warp and breaking selvedge threads constantly before I decided that I couldn’t live without a temple. So I ordered one. Yay, internets!

That’s a tool that keeps the thing you’re weaving from drawing in too much. It’s really terribly helpful. Especially for a beginner.

Anyhow...


The last few towels are far better. That’s the green one on the bottom, the purple one just above that and the light green towel at the very far left on the rail (and atop the stack in the final picture).

Oh, after I re-tied the warp and started weaving again, I forgot to leave a large hem. So the hems on the remaining towels are tiny in comparison. Oops.


Seven of these towels have gone to new homes. I went on a finishing spree and got all of the hems sewn. Pressed the towels and realized I did not need this many towels. So the red ones went to Sairy. The blue ones to Zarzuela and the orange ones to her husband, HWJF. And since CelticQueen was nice enough to deliver them to Sairy and Zarzuela at Rhinebeck, she claimed the green one.


So yeah. They’re done. Several have gone to new homes. I’ll get better. It’s a process.

DPUTiger’s First Dishtowels

Started: 7 September 2010
Finished Weaving: 24 November 2010
Finished, for real: 9 October 2011
Thread: 10/2 unmercerized natural cotton for warp.
8/2 unmercerized cotton in various colors for weft
Quantity: 9 towels. Woulda been 10 (I think) if I hadn’t cut off three and re-tied the warp.