Project: Houndstooth Shawl in Merino Wool

It is no secret that I love houndstooth - - it's a beautiful pattern that is deceptively simple to make.  And if there's anything that I love more than the deceptively simple, I don't know what it is. 

For this project I chose Kollage Happiness fingering weight 100% superwash merino wool in black and lilac.  Each skein is 100g / 450 yards.  I estimated that I would require about 1050 yards of each colour, so for safety I picked up 3 skeins of each colour intending to try for a finished work that was 28" wide x 70+" long (I wasn't too fussy about the length so long as it was more than 70") using a 12-dent heddle. 

My challenges on this project came early.  My first 12-dent heddle was broken adjacent to one of the holes, something I discovered only as I was about to begin threading the holes in my heddle.  This required me to manually transfer the entire width of my warp to my second 12-dent heddle.  Many profanities were heard that afternoon, I will tell you.  Thank you weaving gods for my double-heddle setup, so that I had a backup heddle ready to go while the Nerd repaired the defective heddle. 

My next challenge was in threading the holes in my heddle.  I think that the 12-dent heddle was actually the right call for this particular wool, however it is very challenging threading my 12-dent heddle with the hook provided with my loom.  Because the hook itself barely fits through the heddle, let alone with wool, threading each hole was a challenge of wills requiring much to-ing and fro-ing, and I had more than half a dozen ends simply disintegrate as I was pulling them through a hole.  This left me with several extremely short ends amidst many longer ends, and I probably lost more than 2-3" of warp in evening everything out.

I also had 1 end come through the hole only 2/3 of the way, leaving a twist of fiber on the back end of the heddle, something I did not notice until I had been weaving for a few inches.  More cursing.  At the end of the day, however, this did not pose an insurmountable problem as I simply worked the tag end of the wool towards the back of the loom as I advanced the warp to prevent it from ratcheting up the tension on the one warp thread as it got caught on the heddle.  I can't even tell where it was in the finished piece, which is nice. 

Although I think the 12-dent heddle was the right call for this fingering weight wool it was a close thing, and I found the wool had a real tendency to stick together making it difficult to get a clean shed.  This was remedied by the judicious use of pick up sticks to help me manually force sticky warp threads apart, ensuring that my weaving errors were kept, if not to a minimum, to a dull roar. 

I didn't do anything too fancy with this shawl, just a plain hemstitch at each end with a moderate fringe, but the simplicity works for this pattern, I think.  I did add a little ceramic "M" at one corner as a signature (just in case the usual errors I included in the piece weren't enough to identify me!).

Right off the loom the finished piece was 26" x 74", and after washing and hanging to dry the shawl ended up being 24 1/2" x 72".  I was pretty happy with the length (although I do prefer longer shawls as a rule and would probably go even longer next time) and even though I had more draw-in and shrinkage than I expected on the width, I think I could happily have gone a little narrower on the width, so this was not a bad result. 

Like the baby llama, merino is another wool that sheds like a mother, but feels so soft in the hand that all is quickly forgiven.  So long as there is a lint roller close at hand, anyways!

I love how this piece turned out and am keeping it for myself.  I have rationalized that it's OK to be selfish some of the time.  Besides, my next project is a return to industrial scale tea towel fabrication as preparation for Christmas.  Those will all be given away, so everything balances out. 

Super Easy Cotton Tea Towels - Part II

I really enjoyed weaving up the cotton tea towel described in Angela Tong's Craftsy video - - the pattern is simple yet classic and clean, and the project can be easily completed in only one day from start to finish.

The original pattern called for Lily Sugar n' Cream cotton yarn in white and green twist and that is a lovely combination.  But alas, it is not a super common yarn for some of my local Toronto high-end wool shops.  I ordered more of this yarn online from Yarnspirations, but in the meantime cast about for another cotton yarn that would weave up well and that I could find in my local wool-a-teria.

The solution - - Cascade Luna cotton yarn.  The yarn has a beautiful curl/twist to it, feels wonderfully soft after washing, and weaves up a treat, nice and smooth and even.

I bought almost all the white my local store had, as well as a supply of beautiful hand-dyed blue.  My partner The Nerd also picked up additional colours of this yarn as a Christmas present, including a beautiful rich variegated purple and a green - - lovely!  I started weaving with the white and blue shown above, then added a set of the white and purple the next day.

I

As with the original Lily Sugar n' Cream towels, I warped the Cascade Luna onto my Kromski Harp using my 8-dent heddle and finished with a hemstitch.  The towels are somewhat airy when first woven, but after washing they fluff up in a most satisfying way that is deliciously soft on the skin.

 I frankly love this pattern and plan on using it for my 2014 range of gift towels (for stocking stuffers or as Christmas gifts, or for single towels as hostess gifts when we are invited to parties).  I plan on doing a few more sets of towels using the Craftsy pattern, and then I will switch to something else for next season.  It would not do to get bored with weaving simply because I went crazy making one particular tea towel pattern on an industrial scale!

I have already given away the set of white/blue towels as hostess gifts at two different events this month, and each was very well received.  I have already woven up a replacement white/blue towel with my incremental Christmas yarn, even though I technically should have been saving it for after Christmas.  Humbug on that, I say!  Immediate gratification all the way!

Project: Fabulous easy cotton tea towels

Last week's project was taken from Angela Tong's Rigid Heddle Weaving video class on Craftsy.  The class is useful because the instructor breaks everything down, from a worksheet with yardages and ends already calculated, to step by step instructions for finishing including hemstitching.  For  a beginner weaver like me this is very useful.

The tea towel project called for Lily Sugar n' Cream cotton yarn - - one 14 oz cone of white and 2 x 57g balls of Green Twists.  I was initially a little concerned about how this yarn would work up as the white cotton in particular felt a little abrasive on the cone, but my concerns were all for naught - - this yarn worked up a treat, was super easy to work with, had only manageable tangles, and is very absorbent as it turns out - - perfect for towels.  My only complaint is the rather limited colourways available in the Twists line of yarns - - I would love to repeat this same pattern with blues or purples, but the Twists line favours more of the red and brown shades. I ended up with about 1/3 of a ball of the green and a decent portion of the white cone leftover after I finished the project, so I was pleased not to have run out of yarn at any point. 

The video instructions were very clear and the pattern was quick to set up using my warping board built into the Kromski Harp.  I made a minor mistake transferring my first warp to my heddle (I built the warp in two sections) - - I inadvertently started at the wrong side so I had an extra pair of ends on one side that I had to move to the other to get the pattern to work out.  All in all I have made more catastrophic mistakes and this one was comparatively minor and it didn't slow me down too much.

All ready to weave

The instructions for these towels call for alternating 3" sections of white with 1.5" sections of green, with the ends hemstitched.  This was my first attempt at hemstitching, and it was a little - er - rugged on my first edge.  By the second towel, however, I was beginning to get the hang of it and the edges looked much cleaner and more consistent.  I really like the look of the hemstitched edge and will likely incorporate this into more of my projects. 

I love the simple clean lines of these towels.  The pattern is perfect for a kitchen towel - - not too fussy. 

The pattern called for setting up a 2.5 yard warp and weaving both towels on the same warp using waste yarn in between to separate the towels.  It worked perfectly, and I was delighted with how quick and easy it was to weave up two towels once the hard work of warping the loom was done. 

Fresh off the loom, before washing and trimming

The selvedges on my second towel were much cleaner because in part my leftmost warp thread was lying more flush with the other warp threads - - I think given the length of warp wound around at the beginning the warp threads may have rolled over or been otherwise separated somehow, which made for one messy edge on that first towel. 

Tea towels before washing

On my first towel I simply changed bobbins on my boat shuttles when the yarn ran out, which led to some sections having multiple yarn ends woven in.  Although this is not really a problem, I don't like the effect that the woven in ends has on my pattern, and I think moving forward I will switch to fresh bobbins to avoid running out in the middle of a colour block.  I did this for the second towel and liked the result much better. 

I also learned about running out of thread when the finishing edge of the first towel.  Because I had not started with a fresh shuttle before weaving my last section of white. by the time I reached the end of the towel there was comparatively little yarn left available for hemstitching the far edge.  In fact, I ran out halfway through hemstitching that edge, which meant that I had to tie in a new thread (and weave in extra ends as a result).  It was not a fatal error, but it was a useful reminder why it is helpful to have a fresh bobbin for that final section.  Because I had a fresh bobbin before starting the final section of the second towel I did not run out and in fact had lots of yarn to spare for hemstitching. 

I really really enjoyed this project.  The finished towels came off the loom at 25.5" x 14.5" and they were both essentially identical in size, which I really liked.  After washing and drying the towels shrunk down to about 21.75" x 13" - - as with the houndstooth runner I am seeing much more shrinkage on the length than the width of my finished projects.

Finished towel action shot - after washing and trimming

I am keeping these towels for us to use in our kitchen because even though they look pretty good, they are still liberally sprinkled with enough errors (aka "character") that I am uncomfortable gifting these to anyone.  But I really want to do this pattern again because I am sure the second time around will be that much better.