Saturday, September 2, 2017

Goals

(the lines on the cloth are shadows from the loom)

My stated goal - for far too many years - is to weave down my stash.

I can say that little by little my stash is actually being used.  I made a good dent in the Legacy from Lynne yarns over the past year finally using up all (well, most - there is still a box of tow linen I have no idea what to do with...but it's linen!) of her linen and cotton/linen blends this spring.  Also some cotton flake, including some of mine that I had purchased for resale.

Some of my yarns are harder to part with than others.  The weft for this warp, for example, is Fox Fibre naturally grown coloured cotton.  As such it is more expensive than 'ordinary' cotton.  It is also fine, so you get a lot of play value using it.

In other words, it takes more time to weave up than a nice 'fat' 2/8 cotton.

Since it is more expensive, I am not really getting my money's worth out of it because I just can't charge enough to cover the cost of purchasing it, then the labour of weaving it off.  But, the time had come to deal with it.

I carefully sorted the cones because I had several different shades, calculated how much warp I would need to use it up and started planning.  My math figured I had about enough yarn to weave 40 yards so I thought I would go ahead and put 45 yards on and any warp left over I would weave off using some of the nice half bleached singles linen in my stash.

And then I found more cones on another shelf.

My warp grew to 50 yards.

I'm now about 40 yards into that warp and I will have Fox Fibre yarn left over.  Not much, maybe a cone or two.  A friend has spoken up saying that she would love to have whatever is left over, so what I don't weave myself will go to her.

But I am one step closer to my stated goal of weaving down my stash.

Not that I'm in any danger of running out - and even if I were, I know where to get more!

But all those bits of yarn that were too...precious...to use?  I'm going to finally get them woven, one way or another.  

Now, what to do with that silk...

2 comments:

Nancy said...

If it helps... I learned from Susan Conover that tow linen in the weft makes a lovely rustic looking towel. :)

Laura Fry said...

Unfortunately not this particular tow linen. :( Too thick and stiff for towels. May use as weft in rep weave placemats/table runners. Still mulling...