Recalculating, Recalculating

 

Latest 'doodlings'...

I'm still on a mission to use up my 2/16 cotton stash.  As part of that stash I had (I thought) a box of black.  Nearly 10 pounds.  A significant amount of black!  

So, I had been weaving away using up some of the other colours left, trying to decide how to use the black.  What colour warp?  Which design(s)?  Because it was going to take a lot more than one warp to use up that much weft yarn.

Yesterday I was about to finish using one of the dark navy yarns, so I started preparing the next weft, and I pulled that box of black down from the top shelf where it had been residing for, oh, 2 years?  3?

The first thing I noticed was that the yarn was very shiny.  Hmm.  Was it mercerized?  No, I had used all the mercerized black a few warps ago.  Must be cotton.

I set up to begin winding bobbins and looked at the yarn more closely.  

Oh.

Not cotton.  Brassard bamboo.

Definitely not wanting to use a 'rayon' in tea towels.  Not that it won't dry dishes, rayons are very absorbent.  They also take a lot longer to release the moisture once saturated.

All my planning of the previous few weeks had to be tossed out the window and I had to re-think my plans.

Now, instead of doing the next warp, which has what looks sort of like reptile skin, with the black weft, I will be using up more of the other colours I have.

There is a large 2 pound cone of a green which will do more than one warp all by itself.  So that will get used for the 'chameleon' design.

I have a greyed green cone that is nearly 3 pounds.  That greyed green is going to 'sadden' the brighter peacock and blue of the warp, so I need something a lot more subtle.  I will have to page through some of my other designs, see if I've got something already in the queue.  

And I have a bunch of natural to use up, which I think I will use on the above 'tile' design.  I took the draft I'm currently weaving and messed around with it, and I think the white weft on the brighter blues will look quite nice.

I'm not sure if there will be enough yarn left for another warp, so now I have to begin thinking about something other than tea towels.

With nearly 10 pounds of black bamboo, it seems I will be making shawls later this summer, after all.