In a stunning change of pace ... more cotton tea towels!

I ordered more Lily Sugar n' Cream yarn because I had a plan to work up a few more sets of cotton tea towels using that same Craftsy pattern by Angela Tong.  I have to say that the cost of the class has been more than amply repaid by the enjoyment I have had in making my multiplicity of tea towels.

On a recent trip to Columbus I visited a Jo-Ann store looking for cotton yarn, and I stumbled into the motherlode of Lily Sugar n' Cream yarn - - the store had lots of colourways that I simply could not buy online in Canada, like purples and blues, as well as scented yarn (that I most assuredly did NOT purchase) and other novelty yarns.

Because I have impulse control issues (!), I picked up a couple of balls in several colours as well as a couple of 14 oz cones of white cotton for the base.  This allowed me to weave yet another set of tea towels last weekend.

For my first pair of towels I used Lily Sugar n' Cream in white and a variegated pink.  The pink yarn has a very gradual colour change and ranges from an off-cream to deep pink, so the colour demarcation between the white and contrasting colour was not as sharp as, for example, the Cascade Luna blue or purple.  But the colour is still lovely and bright and I quite liked this combination.

I took a risk for the second pair of towels and was partially pleased with the result.  On my last trip to Romni Wools I picked up a couple of skeins of interesting cotton yarn with a view of using them in tea towels.  The first one I tried was Sakura cotton yarn blend (50% cotton, 30% viscose and 20% silk) in "Minami", which transitions in colour from ivory to beige-brown to pink to denim blue.  This was another yarn with a very gradual change in colour, and the ivory to beige shift was too close to the base white for my liking.

This yarn has a definite variation in it, with parts being thicker and other parts being so thin I feared for the integrity of my warp.  The yarn also had an irritating tendency to twist, which made for a challenging time keeping clean edges and required constant warp maintenance to untangle twists whenever I rolled my work to the front beam.  I liked the yarn more after washing, though, since it fluffed up nicely and filled in all the gaps I had initially seen when the towels first came off the loom.  I am a little concerned about the yarn's durability however, because the fringes started to almost disintegrate after the most delicate of washing - - OK for a decorative towel, perhaps, but not a good sign for an every day towel that someone will frequently wash.

I couldn't imagine working with this yarn again it was such a pain in the ass to work with so I trashed the leftovers.  I am also very leery about using the second skein of Sakura yarn (in a different blend) that I picked up at the same time, for the same reasons.

One new thing for me was to fold my loom and put it into its travel bag with a project still on it - - we departed Columbus after I had just begun to weave (but not yet finished) the white/pink towels, and the Kromski Harp loom worked perfectly, just as advertised.  I loosened the tension on the front and back beams and simply released the catches and the loom practically folded itself up.  A little shuckling back and forth was all it took to fit into the travel bag, which had lots of room for my loom and accessories like heddles, pick up sticks, bobbin winder, bobbins, and bag of tools.   

Overall I am pleased with the weavability of the Lily Sugar n' Cream cotton yarn, and am adding to my stack of gift towels as ammunition for the holidays.  These are a fun, quick, project.