The four bins in the top photo are some of the 2/20 mercerized cotton that I began with - there are actually more cones on a shelf that are even older than these tubes, but they are a mixed bag of colours and since they are on small cones, they store more easily than tubes with less and less yarn on them. Plus I've already used up some of the yarn in previous warps in the past few weeks.
The bottom photo is my caddy at the loom as of this morning. Yes, I will weave directly from the tube, if the tube is small enough. Since I want to use up as much 'bulk' as possible, as quickly as possible, I've been concentrating on weaving the dribs and drabs of tubes. Some of the tubes are just a wee bit too much to fit into the shuttle, so I wind off onto bobbins, use those up first (so I don't wind up with a bunch of bobbins with left over yarn on them) and then work on emptying as many tubes as I can.
The caddy shows just what I've used up in the past couple of days. I'll empty the caddy now that I've taken the photo.
Today I managed to weave enough that I need to cut off what I've woven because the cloth beam is building up and becoming 'padded' by the yards of woven cloth on it and resetting the tension is getting more difficult. If I weave much more, the beam becomes thick enough my knees touch it, and that's annoying. So instead I count how many towels (or whatever it is I'm making) and when I've reached around 7-8 yards or so, I cut off and then re-tie and begin again.
Cutting off from time to time (three segments in a 24 or so long yard warp) means I can deal with any small tension issues that may crop up.
I've reached the point now where the tubes that are left are getting larger so the pace of emptying tubes is going to slow.
There is rather a lot of yardage in 2/20 mercerized cotton (8400 yards in a pound) and each towel is taking around 900 or so yards to weave. That varies according to the design - some are more, some are less. I try to make pretty generous sized towels, but sometimes I get the math wrong and some of them turn out a bit smaller, some a bit longer. Never mind, they will still dry dishes.
Bottom line? I figure I've got enough yarn there that I will be making tea towels for months. What keeps me going is coming up with new designs.
On the spool rack is the 2/16 unmercerized cotton I used for the warp. I should get 4 more warps out of those tubes, and then I'm going to change to a teal/turquoise green. I have that forest green to use up, plus other colours that would look good - like one half pound cone of a bright pink, which should look nice in a 'fancy' twill on that teal/turquoise. Plus I have a kilo cone of 16/2 teal/turquoise that needs to be weft only, plus I remembered I also have a 20/2 teal/turquoise unmercerized kilo cone, plus a soft buttery gold, and unmercerized 16/2 white. While white on white is nice, it's hard to see when I'm weaving and most people seem to want colours, not white on white, so...guess I'll be buying more yarn next month?
I also need to buy yarn for the upcoming weaving workshop, and since Brassard generally shuts down for two weeks over the holidays, I need to order now, not wait.
So I'm making up a list, checking it twice...
1 comment:
As always you amaze me with your production. Makes my 7-10 yard warps almost embarrassing. They’re still fun, tho, and like you, I’m working on finding the bottom of bins. Who’d a thought there were that many towels in that bin, all having two ends to hem. Busy winter months ahead!
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