Making Headway

While it feels like I haven't used up much of my stash (there is still soooo much left!) I guess I must be making some headway because I unearthed a bunch of huge cones of single 6's cotton that have been lurking in the corner of my store room for a very long time.

The yarn was a mistake - not mine, but the spinning mill who sent it out in error. Several cases of it! I kept one case because it was spun tightly and I figured it would work to make collapse fabric. It did, and I used up quite a bit of it both as warp and weft. But there are still half a dozen or so cones left and I thought I'd try it on this warp for tea towels. (I used to order natural 2/8 cotton by the case, a minimum of 100 pounds at a time. Cases were 50 pounds each if I remember correctly - it's been 20 years.)

Dimensional loss is going to be a lot higher with the cotton as compared to the linen, so I reduced the number of repeats in the treadling so that they don't wind up really long and skinny. They will be, overall, smaller than what I've been doing but that's okay. They will still work, and will make good hostess gifts if nothing else. :)

I wasn't entirely happy with the first one I did, which you can see below running towards the back of the loom and the cloth storage roller. I used a 1/3/1/3/3/1/3/1 twill for that one but it felt like it was going to be a tiny bit sleazy. So I changed the tie up to 1/3/2/2/3/1/2/2/ to provide a few more interlacements.

The design isn't quite as bold, but I think it will perform better this way. And it may not draw in in terms of width quite so much.

Oh yes - the beam, which is covered in sand paper, has a couple of cloths wrapped around it where it's bare. I do this to protect the shuttle when I flub it (yes, I do that, too) and the weft. Some wefts are really grabby and latch onto the sand paper which gets really annoying when I have to stop and go back to re-do the pick properly.