The Dragon's Lair

Those of you that know me over at Ravelry may have already heard plenty about these... but I'm going to do some "catch up" documentation here and add them in anyway.

These were the project that suddenly interrupted my overshot warp (actually, they were more of a project that came about because I wanted an interruption - a.k.a. break - from the overshot).

I did the towels in a point twill pattern, but the idea actually grew out of an overshot sampler I had seen done by Alison Irwin at the overshot workshop she'd taught earlier in the year. She had made a striped warp where white alternated between dark colors like forest green. Then she'd used a white weft. This made her diamond pattern show up strikingly on any of the colored stripes, but then suddenly "disappear" every time a white stripe was hit. It was a very neat effect. Here is the result of my twill used to emulate that effect (it's much neater in person, but this gives some idea of it):

You really can't see it in the photo, but the diamonds do continue on in the white part. You can sort of make out some of the "hidden diamonds" on the blue-on-blue square where the weft stripe crosses the warp stripe.

Playing off of this idea I had seen, I designed my "Hidden Diamonds" towels. It was a really fun process to think through the design. It's not a complicated one, but it went through a few different sketches of ideas before settling on what was actually warped. I had planned a very simple, balanced set of stripes where one went down each side, as well as one on each end. After running ideas past K, adding a third stripe to the warp was strongly encouraged. So the final results on the stripe placement ended up this way:

The warping for these towels took much longer than I care to admit in public ;-) It wasn't really that there were any problems with the warp - it's just that getting any warp on is a slow process for me, and one nearing 500 ends makes it all the more of a challenge (480 or 90-something ends? You'd think I would actually get out my notes when talking about a project... What a novel idea!).

When it was finally on though, it was just such a beautiful warp!! The dark dark navy blue stripes against the clean background of the white - so pretty!

The warp was wound on shortly into November, and the actual weaving could commence! The deadline loomed near - I was hoping to have these ready for our weaving sale that would happen the week before Thanksgiving.

Heard this saying? "I love that whooshing sounds deadlines make as they pass by"
Well, that's me! And this was one of those whooshing deadlines. I almost got the first towel done in time... it even went to the last few hours of the sale... but the deadline was definitely more of the whooshing past sort.

So a new deadline was set. I had a Christmas party coming up at the beginning of December, and I had been considering weaving something for my gift recipient but figured I didn't have time. Now though, I had one finished towel and a partway completed warp that would make three more. A new deadline! And this one didn't go whooshing past! I was amazed. So two of the towels went to a lovely home with a friend of mine. And since Christmas the other two have resided in my mother's kitchen, living happily productive lives fulfilling their role as kitchen towels (it's so sad when items you weave are deemed "too nice" to ever use).

For those who like details, here is the list (which can also be found in my Ravelry notebook) of specifics:

• Sett: 24 epi, ppi
• Woven in point twill diamonds, from a pattern out of Anne Dixon's "Handweaver's Pattern Directory"
• Woven on: A 4-shaft Rasmussen table loom, on a stand with direct-tie treadles.
• Length of warp: 5 yards. Made 4 large kitchen towels plus a small sampler (plus, the first towel was cut off early and the warp then had to be tied on again - so I could have gotten several more inches out of it if I hadn't).
• Warp: Unmercerized 8/2 cotton, white with 3 stripes of navy blue.
• Weft: Unmercerized 8/2 cotton, white with 2 stripes of navy blue.
• Finishing: Machine wash, machine dry.
• Size before washing: (There was slight variation between the lengths of the towels, but the sizes given are from the same towel) 29” length, 18.25” width
• Size after washing: 26.25” length, 16.5” width
• Hems: Half of each was 16/2 (or 20/2? need to check) cotton, half 8/2 cotton. They were folded in and sewn after washing and drying. Two were hand sewn, and two were machine sewn. I definitely preferred the results of the hand sewn hem.

By time I got to the third towel I was itching to try out some variation. I had about a hundred different possibilities in my head, but what I ended up trying was a fairly simple change to the treadling. I was quite pleased with the results:

While I was very happy with the design (which I plan to use again) and the end results of the towels themselves, weaving these was not all peaches and cream due to the loom which just about got itself thrown out the window on more than one occasion. The very pretty towels pleaded lenience on behalf of the loom, and convinced me to continue, thus preventing a big table-loom-and-stand shaped hole from appearing one day in the snow outside. The biggest problem was that there is a slight tweak to the frame of this loom, and not being square resulted in fights with tension and one selvedge that broke more times than I could keep count of. So even though I liked these towels a lot, and probably wouldn't have minded working a longer warp and trying out more variations - I'm glad that I didn't put any more on than the 5 yrds this time.

But the time came when the towels were all woven, and the exciting moment of unwinding the cloth beam was at hand. Off the loom! Free! Ready to be washed, pressed, hemmed, and sent into the world to conquer wet dishes everywhere! To bring order and squeaky cleanliness into the world. Or, at least in a couple of kitchens.

I shall now bid you adieu, bring this tale to a close, and leave you with the last couple of photos ~