Cheerfully Bright!

These days, in my everyday life, I wear a lot of uninspiring dark colors: black, blue, and brown.

When I was in court frequently, I was much younger (slimmer) and bought higher end brands. In addition to navy and black, I had a gorgeous aubergine Oleg Cassini suit and often paired a fuchsia jacket with a long, slim navy skirt, but that was about as colorful as I dared.

Thus, my clothing options have generally been less than adventurous due to the nature of the profession and my loathing to draw attention to myself.

However, this rather neutral palette did little to express my true love of color.

In fact, I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy lavish displays of color, at least, until I put this warp together a few weeks ago.

To be honest, I do not often use the warping mill, as warping a plain beam is not my favorite method. I much prefer sectional warping; however, it is easier for me to create a gradient warp on the mill.

This was a 12-yard warp. I try not to do more than 12-15 yards on the warping mill because the longer it is, the more difficult and problematic it is to beam.

As I was weaving this set of tea towels, I fervently wished I had 25 yards to weave. These colors were just so fun and rewarding, even in plain weave.

My initial thought was to do a simple bright white weft, but after the first towel, I had had enough of that. I immediately went to a rose weft, followed by light blue, pale yellow, light green, amethyst, turquoise, more yellow, a teal gradient (from leftover spools), limette, and then white/yellow stripes for the last one, as I attempted to use up more leftover bobbins.

There is a video on Instagram of them coming off the loom.

From beaming to photo shoot, these towels took 2.5 weeks!

That time period is rather deceptive, though, as I ignored the loom during the majority of that time. The Friday afternoon following the 4th of July, I sat at the loom and stared at the second towel on the warp. I finished it in no time and began the third. Saturday, I wove off and on throughout the day. On Sunday morning, I finished up the ninth towel and before long, I was done with the 11th, which was a few inches shorter than the rest, as I ran out of warp.

As I had taken down the serger and sewing machine the week before, hemmed a mountain of items, secured everything back into the foyer closet, and cleaned up, I was slightly reticent to repeat the process again so soon; however, most of these towels had places to go, so I promptly dragged everything out and set to work.

I must be getting faster, as in no time I had everything done and the sun had not yet set, which meant I had time to take a few quick shots.

I used 8/2 cotton for the warp with a sett of 20 and a weaving width of 24 inches. I wove each towel (except for the last) 36" long under tension. I used both 8/2 cottolin and 8/2 cotton for the weft.

Hemmed and washed, most of these were 21.5" wide x 30" long. The cottolin ones were longer, as they tended to shrink less.

First, color aside, the size of these towels are perfect for me! I love the extra length and width. I had been making them with a weaving width of 22 inches and length under tension of 32 or 34 inches, but 24" x 36" will be my new standard.

Second, my default sett has usually been 24, but I thought I would try something different. The looser sett is fine. The fabric has more drape, but I prefer the thicker, heftier sett of 24, so it will remain my default for these kinds of towels.

Third, I need to weave with a lot more color in my life! These were an absolute joy!

The smaller loom has now been empty since Sunday. I need to wipe her down with Howard's Feed & Wax, as well as dust her lamms, but I have made no motion toward prepping her next warp.

This is unusual.

The duvet fabric on the Beast remains untouched, and I need to devote a significant period to moving that along, but I am stuck in neutral at the moment.

The original plan was to warp the little loom with 25 to 30 yards of 11/2 cottolin in natural to make a slew of tea towels in this pattern, as Christmas is coming...

However, I was uninspired to do so.

My heart wants another bright, cheerful warp in a riot of color.

As described to a dear friend this morning, my dilemma is this:  How do I prepare a gradient warp sectionally?

I know I can make one on the warping mill just as I did above, but the warping mill has limitations. Specifically, I do not like to beam plain warps and I wish to warp significant yardage, more than 12 to 16 yards, and as I mentioned above, 16 yards is my limit with plain warping.

Sectionally, I know I can get 50 yards on my beam. The issue is how to minimize warping waste with 60 spools while using 24 ends per inch.

When I warp in a single color or with separate, specific stripes, I know exactly how many yards to load on each spool to beam the warp.

When creating a gradient warp, I am not using a formula, as I do with Fibonacci color changes. I rely on my eyes to guide me to the introduction of the next set of colors. 

My plan was to put thoughts and colors to graph paper, then do the math; however, while explaining the process to my friend, a light flickered on.

When I acquired the first loom with a sectional beam, I had a warping mill and tension box, but no spool rack or spools. I warped directly from the mill, through the tension box, onto the beam in 1" sections.

Ha!

I am aware many people utilize a similar method with a warping square, but I have found those to be quite pricey, even the occasional secondhand one. Plus, I would have to find a place to store it, as my studio is already overflowing.

Warping directly from a mill is time consuming and not as efficient as pulling from spools, but there is less waste. I also found it cumbersome, but I am taking time off next week, and my sweet friend Michele is coming for a visit. I could probably draft her into lending a pair of hands while she is here. Although, she has a new baby Macomber (Bebe) we have plans to warp first, of course.

Michele, you heard it here first! I have plans for you!