Back in the Studio

It has been a busy summer with friends visiting, the husband going on an amazing Alaskan fishing trip, getting the younger daughter prepared to start law school, finishing the second book in the Bandera series, starting the third, as well as a diving into a completely different series, and maintaining the day job, which means there has not been a great deal of weaving.

However, I have been working on that. 

Back in May, I ice dyed some cotton/hemp 8/2 thread, about two pounds of it. While I noticed it was thicker in diameter than the Brassards 8/2 cotton and cottolin, I trusted the label indicating it was 3,360 yards per pound when I did my calculations. 

Now, I know the threads shrink with dyeing and rinsing, but I was shocked at how short I was in the yardage. Instead of having 1,202 yards extra, I was 1,020 yards short, despite meticulous weighing of it after it was dyed and off the cones. 

While I made it work, the color change is not as I had planned. 

The gorgeous dyed colors make up for it, though. I am looking forward to seeing how the cotton/hemp washes and performs. 

On the Beast, I decided to try something new. My go-to cottons are 8/2 and 10/2 unmercerized. I have used 5/2, 3/2, 8/4, and 8/8, as well as different sizes of wool, but I had never used 20/2 cotton, which is half the size (and twice the yardage of 10/2). 

Two years ago, I warped for the versatile everything towels, which could be used as a blanket, towel, and sarong. They turned out GREAT!

Comparing them to the original I had purchased, there was a slight difference in what I made using 10/2 and what was used, which appeared to be 20/2. 

So, I purchased a slew of 20/2 cotton in various subdued colors and dressed the Beast with a fifty-yard warp 42" wide. 

That was a job. 

It was not hard, but it took a great deal of time, even with a Sawyerbee warping square.

But, soon enough, it was done.

I sampled with some leftover pirns from other projects.

Then quickly changed the tie-ups for a different pattern.

Once I was well into the second sarong (each is woven to 75" to 80" under tension), I looked around and decided the other looms needed a bit of attention, as well. 

In early May, I beamed the newest-to-me loom Evangeline with a short, six yard warp of mercerized 10/2 for Huck towels. 

The colors were great, and I adored the sweet little Huck design, but I did not enjoy weaving with three shuttles.

As I sat at Evangeline last night, I did not even attempt to weave the Huck pattern. I stared at it trying to decide what else I could do to knock this warp out.

The simplest thing to do would be plain weave, but that seemed boring.

Then, I decided to do stripes with two of the three colors.

BINGO!

In January, I loaded the 32" Lil Miss with 25.5 yards of Brassards 8/2 in a light grey for block twill towels. I wove eleven of them off and finished them for wedding gifts before lashing back on.

With half the warp remaining, I banged out a towel, but I really was not feeling it.

After I slept on it, I decided there was no harm in cutting that towel off and rethreading the heddles for something different. I estimated I could get a decent run of nine or ten towels with a new pattern. 

Nuts, I know, but why not?

This pattern had been in my queue for a while. I did not relish beaming another plain solid warp with any significant yardage. So, I just decided to reinvent what I had. 

Alone, the pattern looks fine and will make some interesting looking towels.

While I may weave some towels with just the pattern, my plan was actually to use one repeat of the pattern in black between two different colors in plain weave for some cool looking color block towels.

I AM THRILLED!

Thus, the Feisty Studio is alive and well.