September, already?

August was here just a moment ago...

Despite the lack of posting, there has been quite a bit going on here at Feisty Central.

On Saturday, I pulled off four tea towels made from a cotton/linen blend.


The pattern is Ribbon Towels from Webs.

As for the thread, I admit to a bit of confusion. The pattern clearly calls for 8/2 cotton; however, in trying to decide between the Ribbon Towels and Island Breeze Towels, which uses 8/2 Cottolin, I kind of married the two by using the Ribbon pattern and Cottolin...

While not a horrible mistake, I just have tea towels that are much larger than anticipated because the cotton apparently shrinks, and the cottolin does not.

Instead of 17" x 31" towels, I have 20" x 36" tea towels.  I actually do not consider this a problem. They are beautiful, and I am thrilled.

Of course, before I could make the tea towels, I had to finish the gold and ruby blanket, which was on the loom.

I did!


The pattern is from the Handweaver's Pattern Dictionary.  The warp is 8/2 tencel in gold. The weft is Miss Babs Yowza in Ruby Spinel.

The finished dimensions are 50" wide x 75" long.

This picture fails to do it justice. It is gorgeous, the occasional dog hair notwithstanding!

Once the towels were off, the loom did not sit idle for long.  I finished weaving the towels at noon on Saturday. I immediately zigzagged the beginning and end of each towel, but I did not cut them until I had washed, dried, and ironed the whole big piece of fabric.  Once they were trimmed, I hemmed and ironed them again. I guess, I completely finished them in the middle of the afternoon.

After a nice break and dinner, I decided on the next project. From 6:30 p.m. until 11:22 p.m., I prepared the warp (368 ends of cotton rug warp), wound it onto the loom (back to front), threaded the heddles, and sleyed the reed,  By that time, I was a bit worn out, but I wove a bit of the rug warp doubled, as well as some some wool (also doubled) that I am considering weaving a rug with.


The next morning, I began preparing my weft:




Yeah. Those are a lot of t-shirts!

If you guessed a rag rug is well underway, you would be CORRECT!


It is going well with just one little hiccup.  Do you see the problem in the photo?

The rag shuttle I ordered has not yet arrived.

My little impatient self could not wait, so I push the ball through the shed with my fingers.

In case anyone is wondering, there is no real pattern with the colors.  I just decided I would work in groups of 12, as in I attach 12 loops of t-shirt material and roll them into a ball. I also make sure to begin and end each group of twelve with black and try to select the colors in an order where each loop goes well with the next.

The dogs are actually the impetus behind this project, as I need a washable rug at the back door to catch their paws as them come in.

If anyone is interested, I am using this pattern for the weaving.

Lastly, the knitting has picked up a bit of speed as well!!  More to come as lovely fall is just around the corner.

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