Weaverly

A Colorful Life

We're all over the spectrum this week. A visit to the bicycle store for a new flag gave us these zippy stripes. Must try that palette some day: shades of yellow and black and gray. 

Then we visited the rose garden and boat building king, for these spectacular rose experiences:

Willy is doing some more work on the Marsh Tacky. Love that smell of paint.

Back in the studio I've started another towel on the striped warp, this time with a cotton slub in pink as the weft. I'm using the same yarn for pattern and tabby, and it gives a totally different effect.

This tabby, heavier than the usual, is forcing the pattern shots apart slightly, but at an angle, which results in a slight zig-zag effect. 

Now who would have predicted that?

Halvdräll Again

The current crop of halvdräll towels is now cut off and hemmed. 

They're all around the same size, 18" x 21". 

The warp is a mish-mash of cottons, linens, and other cellulose fibers from my stash. 

Likewise the weft.

I treadled each one differently.

A very satisfying 4-shaft project.

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In the Department of Books:

I just finished reading Shirley Hazzard's "The Transit of Venus." I will unreservedly say that this is one of the half dozen best books I've ever read. Ever.

 

Wednesday Notes

Hello friends. Since we were last together, I've had company:

And I've been to the mountains. It was early spring there.

The old post office is still there, and still in use as a post office. 

I saw some interesting examples of complementary colors on my walks...

And when I got back home I finished another halvdräll towel. This one is hemmed and laundered. Cotton & cottolin. No shrinkage events here.


Up close and personal.

Recently read: Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg, and Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner.

 

Stored Energy

For the remaining yard or so of the towel warp, I used an old stash of handspun hemp as weft. This was a singles yarn I had spun years ago and just left it on the bobbin. What I didn't realize was that the stored energy of the singles, not being neutralized by any plying, would create havoc after washing: 

This was a hard wrinkled mess. I was able to iron out the wrinkles with a steam iron, but who needs towels that have to be ironed after every washing? 

Any suggestions short of nuking the towel will be welcome.

On to newer ventures. Another towel warp from the stash.

The structure is halvdräll.