Towels, Socks and Blocks

Here is another old tea towel – well used and still some time left. Woven of all cottolin, one of my favourite fibre combinations.

As for blocks, I am still working on my explanation of converting an overshot draft to a profile draft. As I try write this out I am realizing how difficult it is to write articles or books  to help people understand  in a clear, concise way. It is a lot of work! So no explanation from me yet.  (and I did lose one partially done post to my poor connection)

Socks – I continue to crank a few socks, but have had a flu which not debilitating has been slowing me down and then when I thought I was better a muscle spasm in my neck and shoulder  from out of the blue. Almost better now, but not condusive to cranking socks.

March Colours

Just in the nick of time my new modem arrived and I am able to upload my photos for the colours of  March .

Starting with the beginning of the month and to today,  here are my contributions to this great idea.

Sue of Life Looms Large has the links to more blogs with the colours of March.

High-Speed Connection?

The last two weeks the server connection has been getting slower and slower. I have checked all the usual things and finally called them to say the connection was behaving more like dial-up than high-speed. But nothing has changed, maybe the new modem which should be arriving will help. I haven’t even been able to open my blog dashboard for days the service is so sketchy and hope I can get to the March photos before the end of March!

Tea Towels

Like many other weavers  I love handwoven towels.     Over the years I have made many towels, participated in a few towel exchanges within a guild and via mail with weaver’s all over the world.  As a result I have a drawer full of lovely towels that are used on a daily basis. I am noticing that a few are beginning to show signs of wear and it is  time to think about another towel warp.

I love some of the old overshot patterns but don’t always want the  floats for kitchen towels nor do I want to use two shuttles.  One way to use the overshot patterns is to convert the  pattern to a profile draft.   I then use  weaving software convert the blocksl.  Standard 4 shaft overshot patterns have 4 blocks which can become 4- three end twill blocks plus one  for plain borders on 15 shafts, or 4- four end blocks on 16 shafts taking the pattern to the edge.  I use  turned twill so that the fabric doesn’t skew in one direction.

One source of overshot patterns is Marguerite Porter Davison’s, A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, available used or new.    This towel (honeysuckle overshot) is done with one overshot block for one 3 end  twill block. The result is a darker and lighter side in the resulting cloth.  The warp and weft are 22/2 Swedish Cottolin.

The tie-up for this towel ( blooming leaf overshot) uses   two blocks together and makes a larger pattern with each side a reverse image.  22/2 Swedish Cottolin warp, 10/2 mercerized cotton weft.

My converted drafts coming… 😉

Hearts – February Calendar Sample

A little late for Valentine’s day, but here is the February sample, extra hearts are, I hope, always welcome in the world.  This uses the old Swedish Snowflake pattern threading from the book 200 Patterns for Multiple Harness Looms: 5 to 12 Harness Patterns for Handweavers, by Russell E.  Groff  (and where it was from before  I am not sure).   Many people have varied this threading and tredling and it has been published in more recent magazines with many variations including hearts.

February Hearts, Advancing Twill Weave adapted by Tanis Smythe from a Kim Marie Bunke Design

Pattern Source: Weaver’s, Spring 1997

Warp : Cansew 00/3 mercerized cotton sewing thread
Colour: Red, scarlet and pink, threaded randomly
Sett: 40 epi; Reed: 10; Sley: 4 ends/dent

Weft : 10/2 mercerized cotton, wine
Picks per inch: