Placemats finished

With some heavy duty weaving days I have now finished the 'Colors of the Grand Tetons' placemats - well finished the weaving anyway.  They still need to be washed, hemmed, and finished (to bring out the design on the linen).

7 of the 8 placemats straight off the loom

I have to sew in the ends (particularly the silver thread), machine sew the ends, then trim up the waste before putting them in to a gentle wash.  Then they will be dried and ironed and I can then set up the hems for hand stitching.  The the final finish is to wash again and then pop them, still set, in the freezer.  Once frozen bring them out again and under a clean cloth give them a good hot iron.  It really brings out the sheen on the linen and makes the pattern stand out.

As soon as I finished the placemats I started the next project - a baby blanket for another of Anne's nephews.  They have just had their third child and Anne wants to give them a custom colored baby blanket.

On the loom and weaving

I quickly wound the warp (just one blanket and loom waste so not long) in the chosen football team colors.  Next I dressed the loom (back to front) and was weaving again by a little after dinner time.  An all time record for me - the process tends to take a couple of days, but as the deadline for this is the same as for the placemats, i.e. we will see both couples at the wedding, I didn't have much choice.

Next steps are to finish the weaving, tie off the ends, twist the fringe, wet finish and then box it up...

With that and the hemming, I'll be busy.