Bird's-eye Towels

Day 263: The floor loom is naked once again. This morning, I finished up a square "leftover" and a small sample piece for my files, using up the last of a warp hung on a traditional bird's-eye draft. Quite a bit of pattern variation is possible using bird's-eye and coupling it with colour changes provides an even greater range of possibilities. I think my favourite among these are the two rainbows, and they were also the easiest to weave. The one on the left shows the pattern as it appears on the reverse. The most problematic was the blue second from the right in the top row. The treadling between blue and light blue did not proceed in an exact opposite, making it easy to throw the pattern off. The towels have not yet been fulled by washing, so the weave appears somewhat loose and irregular at this point. Once they've been through the wash, the fibers will plump up and become more compact. Some shrinkage will occur during washing because they are 100% cotton.

Last Towel

Day 260: Inspired by a project from the Weaving Works, I decided that I should weave a Pride Month towel as the last one in a series using a traditional bird's-eye draft. When I finished it up and advanced the warp, I discovered that there was enough remaining to make a place-mat or possibly even another towel. I'm usually rather generous when I measure warp because "too much" is decidedly preferable to "too little" at the end of a project. In this case, I'd kept the spacing between towels fairly close, gaining an inch or two between each pair. Coupled with the extra warp length, this gave me more than I usually leave for the sample I keep in my weaving file. I decided to use the same rainbow design for the last one. Next up will be a much more complicated "Summer and Winter" lap throw. The warp is already measured and ready to go on the loom.