I was intrigued by this pattern and I call it “Bubbles”. It doesn’t look like the pattern pictured in the magazine – probably because I chose to use a ground weft in between each pattern weft. Using a variegated royal blue, gold and aqua for the ground created an interesting pattern.
The size was 19″ in the reed and 28″ woven was the length on the loom; but after wet finishing, its size is 15 1/2″ X 23 1/2″.
Total number of ends was 457.
I used white sewing machine thread for the hem (turned under 1 1/2″ on each end and machine stitched it in place.)
I think it makes for an absorbent towel.
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Needed floating selvedges; also, replaced the cotton floating selvedges with a 2/20 brown rayon as the cotton kept breaking.
Because the silk tussah is a boucle and is “sticky”, don’t use it for warp again. And the silk is a Giovanna Imperial yarn, which is no longer available – it was a happy accident to find the multicolored, bumpy polyester (from Made in America) was such a good substitute in the weft (the warp has the majority of the silk in it).
Used 3 ends / dent in a 10 dent / inch reed which is 10″ wide in the reed. I found the draft in Handwoven; but, changed the fibers used, order of color, sett, treadling, etc.; the only thing original is the satin draft.
Had some major issues with the shed as the shafts were misbehaving (some were rising when they weren’t needed); almost cut it off and threw it in the trash. But, my hubby/loom engineer helped a great deal and we got the correct shafts to raise or lower when required. This was woven on a 2002 24 shaft AVL Production Dobby Loom with a Compu-Dobby III – old but a workhorse. I use an old laptop – not attached to the internet to drive my loom; so I can’t download a wif file from it.
Inspiration was the fact that I have some left over 20/2 cotton (in white and taupe) from a previous project and thought the silk boucle was perfect match; and wanted to try a satin draft. Plus, my daughter found the draft and suggested that she would like a table runner; and, I am trying to use finer yarns in my weaving.
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This reversible rug was designed as a three-end tied unit weave and woven using shaft-switching. The selvedges were card-woven. The gold color was hand-dyed.
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For the blue/purple side of the rug, I tried to weave the fabric strips in to create a movement from blue to purple. I chose the backside fabric to be a contrasting color to the front. The hems are based on Tom Knisley’s hem pattern.
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This has become one of my favorite towel warps. It is draft #246, false damask check. I call it woven ribbons, as that is what it looks like to me. Although it uses two shuttles, it is actually a very rhythmic weave.
On my ten-yard warp, I was able to get 11 towels.
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Warp Width: 19.5″
Sett: 24
Reed: 12
Sley: double
# Ends: 470
Warp Yarn: unmercerized cotton
Count: 8/2
Color: 6 colors
Weft Yarn: unmercerized cotton
Count: 8/2
Color: 6 colors, same as warp. Used one color for each of the 6 towels.
Finished dimensions: 16.5 x 24
Turned Taqueté
I did not weave the squares described in the Handwoven article, as I was having so much fun weaving bubbles.
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Pattern was a plain weave towel with pick up stick details. I used organic colorgrown cotton. Light green/dark green. The colors will show the more it is washed and used.