Completely random notes on weaving

A one pound spool of dyed cotton yields six 24” towels. I would like a larger yield, but I cannot argue with the math. In the vernacular, it is what it is.

So far I’ve made very dark, jewel colors, and middle colors. Personally, the middle colors make me happier. I find the warp contrast too much for the jewel colors. Worse yet, my beat is no longer as even as the old days, and when I miss pics per inch, I see it jump out when the towels are fulled. It is what it is.

On a day I can devote to weaving, I can weave two hours in the morning, close to two in the afternoon, and sometimes another hour in the evening. I hoped to extend my back endurance, but the real problem is my shoulder. I found the perfect bench, a piano bench with extra long legs. My forearms are above the breast beam. Perfect!

This past week I finished eighteen towels. I could do more, but that might begin to resemble work. I do not hesitate to retire to my bed for a nap when I’ve pissed off my back or fuddled my head. Charlotte’s Web did make me cry, by the way. What are the odds I would reach into a library of books and for my solo read pick a book about spinning and weaving.

Some towels are off to new homes. They aren’t surprises, on the whole. I did surprise a couple of recipients last time, and will ask them this time. I had a fun email exchange with one blogger who declared a need for white, as she knows she will bleach any colored towel to that state. Hahaha. White is the bleached state of cotton.

When I do not have enough warp to weave six towels from a dyed cone of thread, I’ll finish up the warp in natural towels. They are creamy, the natural state of processed cotton. Bleaching them in every wash turns the towels white in time.

I’m half through another jewel tone pound of thread, royal blue. There’s room for another dozen colored towels after the royal, then natural. Then a new warp. However, “production” will slow and halt soon; Friday I finally come up on the appointment with the orthopedic surgeon, and then there will be MRI’s, I suppose, and then a trip to Wisconsin, and then the moment of reckoning over the shoulder.

Yesterday I fulled the yardage from two different pounds of thread. Today I cut it into 24” lengths, serged both ends of twenty four towels, to secure the threads. Then I sewed rolled hems on twenty four towels, and folded and stacked them, then packed up a few to ship tomorrow.

And now I have these left to send into the world.