March Snow

 

This morning we woke to wet that turned into snow.  Welcome to March where I live.

This week I got the next warp into the loom and started weaving.  I'm pleased enough with how it's going but realized that I still have a lot more yarn than I figured and that I am going to need to order in another 16 pounds of 2/16 white in order to finish weaving the rest of the dyed 2/16 cotton I own.  That means that I will have white 'left over'.  Not a big deal - I can always weave white on white.

But I also have a bunch of other fine yarns so it is time to go rummaging in the nooks and crannies of my studio, pull out the rest of the yarn I want to weave up and start thinking about how those might look.

Yesterday I started working on the next draft for when the current warp is done.  Since I average two towels a day and each warp is giving about 21 or 22 towels, it won't take long before the current warp is finished.

There is quite a lot of darker value colours left and I find block designs more pleasing with such high contrast warp and weft, so I messed about with a draft I found in Ars Textrina, changed the tie up to 'rose' fashion instead of 'star', then messed with the borders at the selvedge until I had something I was pleased with.  I still have to crunch the treadling to make it 'fit' my tea towel length, but after spending an hour at the computer, I decided to leave that until another time.  I don't actually need the draft ready until the next warp is beamed, after all.

Today is kind of wet, chilly and nasty out and I'm quite happy to return to the loom and weave my second towel.  I've got 4 yellow and white ones done and will do a more mid-value mint green next.  The motif will actually show while I'm weaving it which will be nice.  If the mint green is as far into a darker value as I want to shift, the rest of the warp can be finished in beige.  I've got at least 4 different shades of 'beige' that also need using up.  And most of those are more nearly used up than the red, rose, darker green so it would be nice to clear my shelves of more tubes of yarn.  I'm going to ignore the orange entirely and donate that to...someone who appreciates orange?  

Currently reading Tamora Pierce and really enjoying the textile references.  I'm on book 3 of the first series and we have already put the next four on hold at the library as we are both enjoying them.