Spring

 

In my quest to use up my yarn, I decided to use yellow on this warp with this design.  It's quite difficult to weave insofar as the contrast between the yellow and white is...not a lot...and when I'm sitting in front of the loom I really can't see the design at all.  In order to see this much of it, I had to side light the cloth, and even so, it barely shows in the photo.

However it does show up quite nicely when seen from the side so I'm confident that it will look quite nice once it is woven and wet finished.

And that's the thing, isn't it?  Sometimes we just have to go on faith.  Or previous experience.  

This motif was taken from Ars Textrina, from the old German weaver's pattern book, adjusted to fit my warp changing the design from 12 shafts to 16 (effectively enlarging it), then I used my own preferred tie up and selected 'weave as drawn in'.  Then I messed with it so that the design would be 'balanced' (same both ends of the cloth) and added hem areas.

So not exactly original.  

Elizabeth Zimmerman, a well known knitting designer and educator, coined the phrase 'unvented' as a way to acknowledge that we pretty much build on what has gone before.  It also allows the possibility that someone, somewhere, might have also come up with a particular design and we've just wound up at the same place they have.

I'm pleased with the results - so far.  I did find a threading error while I wove the header, but frankly, it's pretty much impossible to tell if there are more.  There are areas where it *looks* like something is amiss, but those picks are consistent so I'm assuming it's fine, just a feature of the way I'm weaving it.

There are areas that are weaving 'lacy' which should make these towels quite absorbent and provide some texture, so even if the design can't be easily seen, there will be lots going on with it.  And why I'm thinking a high contrast weft might not be the best choice.  I might try a rose, but that will be pretty high contrast and I may not like it as much.  

But whatever I do, the tea towels will dry dishes.  And the yellow is very spring like - reminding me of daffodils.

It's all good.