I wrote about the bath towel kit here and had a bit of leftover since my towels were a bit shorter than I expected after shrinkage.
I had ended up with some yardage after finishing the bath towels since my loom is set up to have very little waste.
I wove off the extra bit and I estimated I had enough to make a couple of hand towels. I finally got around to getting my craft room situated to do that and pulled out my serger and cut the fabric in half and added a rolled edge to the middle.
The edge is a bit wavy and I probably could have changed some settings on my machine to have a better result, but I'm happy with what I ended up with. I then went back to the sewing machine and finished the ends with a rolled hem.
I did the exact same on the other half and ended up with two hand towels.
Now they go into the wash to see what the shrinkage will look like.
After a few breaks, I was able to finish weaving the In the Buff towel kit. I used the recommended pattern for the first two towels and then switched to plain weave for the second towels.
Since I was using a hybrid method of winding on my warp, I had a lot less loom waste.
I had a bit extra cloth that I will use for hand towels. I will have to use my serger to separate the width into two with a rolled hem.
I used the zig zag stitch at the hems.
After washing, the buff pattern is pretty.
The cloth is soft and the hemming commenced. I ended up with two patterned towels and two plain towels.
Another 6,653 meters for stash dash.
After the retreat, I went though all my stuff and found a towel kit that I bought a while ago. I pulled it out and there was no instructions so I went off and e-mailed Lunatic Fringe for a copy.
They were nice enough to send me the pattern called In the Buff towels and I consulted Jane about it and she recommended a sett of 10. She also helped me determine how many ends my warp needed to be.
Winding the warp took three sections and you can see the veg matter in the twist.
I ended up with 3 bouts using 2 full cones and about half of another.
One of the cones had a ton of knots and I had this leftover from cutting and winding.
Next, the bobbins were wound.
The smaller gauge yarn is for the hems.
Taking everything to the loom and preparing the paper took some doing. I warped back to front and it was an ordeal which took me most of one day to get that warp wound on. My back was aching by the time it was done.
Next came the heddles which I spaced since the warp took the entire width of the loom. Another half a day threading the heddles and the reed with some corrections along the way. More shoulder and back fatigue.
Next came the tie on the front beam.
My warp was not even at this point so I had to cut off the excess to line everything up. I ended up with this much waste at the beginning of the project.
Weaving with waste yarn to spread out the warp was the next step.
I can see I already have an error, but I'm over it now and that will just be a design element. I also figured out that my warp tension was not quite even especially on the edges so I put a bobbin under the warp at the paper to add a bit more tension.
The 3" hem went on next and it seems pretty even now.
One sequence of the weave pattern and I'm done for the day. The pattern weaves for 52" and then another 3" of hem to be repeated 3 more times. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping to finish this project before putting the loom up for sale.
