Plate Spinning

 

The biggest difference between 'working' and 'retirement' would appear to be the number of plates that I need to keep spinning.

The red warp came off the loom, then the load of tea towels were wet finished and given a hard press.  And then I had to find a 'better' colour of thread to hem them with.

When my mom died, she still had most of her thread stash from quilting.  When she asked what I wanted of her quilting supplies, I said I would take the thread because I always seem to need a different colour to hem with than what I have on hand.  Since I inherited mom's thread, the only thread I've actually had to purchase has been more white cones for the serger.

I was not hopeful that I would find just the right colour to hem these towels.  My reds were either too scarlet or too dark.  The one orange I had was quilting thread and while I can (and have) used quilting thread to hem, it has twist energy in it and tends to pigtail back on itself.

The drying rack was set up right in front of mom's thread cabinet, so I folded the towels once they were dry and then moved the rack out of the way so I could rummage.  The first two drawers didn't really have anything different from what I already had by my hemming station but there was one more drawer - the drawer with the cones for serging.  I could see a red, but it was the same red I already had upstairs, but I pawed through the heap of cones and voila, one cone of the exact perfect match for the cloth (not the individual threads it is made from).

I am slowly making my way through the last of the previous warp to this one, but now I can go ahead and finish them off, knowing I have the correct colour of thread to hem these.

Because I now have 3 towels woven on the new warp, with 16 left to go.  Better put a little more spin on all of my plates and keep going...  I have appointments next week, but my goal is to try to get 2 towels woven every day.  If I can't manage two, then I'll go for 1.  Technically that means this warp might come off in 10 days time.  That's a lot of hemming to get done before the next warp shoots down the pipeline!