Trifecta!

Today I am weaving on all three looms in the loom room for the first time

L-R: BigMac, Dot, and Bernie.

Yesterday I finished dressing BigMac with the second 2015 Christmas towel warp.  Much easier with the angel wings and support from Anne.  I've revised the tie-up considerably as the original worked fine but was not the most efficient.  I spent a couple of hours on the computer to reduce it to what it should have been in the first place - a five shaft huck lace design.  It has allowed a better treddle layout with the tabby treddles (most used) space to the left and then the three pattern treddles in sequence for the right foot.  It should cut my weaving time down a little bit.

The first pattern repeat (confirming the computer work).

Dot has been ready to weave for a little while, but I needed to add some floating selvedges and then weave enough to see if the syncopated threading: Rosepath design would work.  Even given that I am weaving at quite a wide set and will need to wet finish it to draw it in to the final dimensions, the diamond color patterns are starting to appear (if you squint!).  The coaster guild challenge is due in January so I should make that deadline.

Red and purple diamonds appearing with the green weft.

Bernie has been a little neglected after starting the first stripe design I put weaving there on hold to work on the other two projects. 

Progress so far (this is the 'back')

The real priority now is to finish the Christmas towels in time to wrap and send out the Christmas presents.  We are finishing the designs for our 2015 Christmas card to accompany the towels.  That should be completed tonight ready to start printing.

I still have loom #4, the original counter balance loom (unnamed as yet), and of course the loom I am restoring.  I'm still awaiting the final go-ahead to continue the restoration, but there was never a rush on that.  I will have to test weave something with it so will try for 4 looms in action when that occurs.  There's definitely no room for an attempt at '5' at this stage.

We are also still working on llama spinning - although mostly just removing guard hairs from the current pile of wool. 

First batch of towels finished

Yesterday I finished the final 3 towels by hand stitching the hems.  They joined the rest in a nice satisfying 'pile' of towels.

Finished towels

Next step is to wrap up those towels that are Christmas presents for the NZ family, then get going on the second batch.

I've wound out the skeins for the red and green stripes and washed them.  Currently I am dyeing some smaller lots in red, green, and purple for a guild mug rug challenge.  As soon as they are done I'll do the larger amounts for this project. 

While winding skeins I did a third amount which will by dyed in the indigo pot so that after Christmas towels I will do some slightly modified towels with blue stripes.  They will be for sale.

Rug #1 "Kowhaiwhai"

I started weaving the first of the three rugs yesterday.  The wool was waiting for us on the front porch when we arrived home from our trip from North Carolina on Sunday.  Two day delivery from Yarn Barn of Kansas and the 10% discount negated delivery charges anyway.

Dressing 'Bernie' was pretty straight forward. I used some linen I had over from weaving place mats a couple of years back.  It makes a good strong warp that hopefully won't break on me.  It did have a fair old bit of twist in it, which once wound on through the cross/lease sticks needed constant untwisting as I dressed back to front - although in this case that is technically top to bottom.

Linen warp going on to Bernie

After spacing the yarn out I added a row of red and white twining before starting the first stripe which is a neutral silver.  I then tied on the cartoon design for the kowhaiwhai stripe and started with the black/red/white.

Pattern stripe appearing.

It will be slower than the plain stripes, but seems a little easier than the zig-zag pattern on Turquoise Lightning (where I used shuttles).  For this, as I have many color changes, I have butterflies of the appropriate yarn hanging ready for the next shot.  It will get a little more complicated, but as long as I maintain consistent 'rules' for the change of color cross-overs it should work out.  Time will tell.