Twenty Eighteen

My count may be off, but it looks as though I produced between 80 and 96 tea towels last year.

The count varies, as I used some of the yardage for cloth, rather than tea towels. (Of course, this does not include the wool projects I used for cowls, mittens, etc.).

To be honest, the number surprised me.

If I had kept a running count and had some idea how close to 100 I was, I would pushed to make it to three digits.

Ha!

However, that may make 100-plus a goal for this year, except I have blankets in mind.

One specific blanket involves some fingering weight wool in natural for warp and worsted Malabrigo Rios in Cumparista as weft:

Of course, the plan is to use an overshot pattern from Weaving Designs by Bertha Gray Hayes.  At the moment, I am considering this one:

Moreover, as though juggling two shuttles were not enough, I am seriously considering weaving this double width because my big loom is "only" 56-inches wide, this pattern "only" requires four-shafts, and with eight-shafts, I can weave the 80-inches wide I would like. 

Not that I have ever done double width weaving before...

I have a digital copy of Jennifer Moore's original Doubleweave book, but I have also had the new edition on order since July 2018. According to Amazon, it is due to ship the end of this month. 

So, not only is double width weaving on the agenda, but double weaving, as well!

Which, I am quite sure, will cut into the tea towel production time. 

Currently, the looms are newly warped.

The Beast is sporting an overshot pattern for a shawl with 100% silk weft, which is also a Bertha Gray Hayes pattern:

Lil' Miss has a gradient warp in 8/2 cotton featuring a busy pattern, which is a variation of a Maltese Cross. I am actually testing a 5/2 cotton weft on this one. These will actually be fancy tea towels, when they are done. There are a few treadle variations, so I am excited about playing with them, as well as with different warps.

Georgia Yarn Company featured a special on their Snowflake Towel kits last fall. I was feeling a bit festive and ordered them, even though I had no time or intention to get them done prior to Christmas. However, at some point before December this year, I do hope to make them.

In addition to the weaving, I actually knitted a few things:

Those six beanies in the lower left hand corner, I knit them last spring and tucked them away for Christmas gifts; however, for the love all things woolen, I could not find the darn things to gift. I did completely reorganize the studio, but I have successfully hidden them from myself. 

sigh

No doubt they will eventually turn up...

To the weaving and knitting, I also added spinning to the regimen this past year with a new wheel in late June. 

Well, it would seem I need to get going to make 2019 as productive!!

Happy Crafting!