A Tea Towel or Two

(Originally posted on WP 7/27/20.)

As I very recently took the last 6 rugs off the loom, and spent a few days fringing, hemming, washing, pressing, trimming, measuring and labeling, I (or rather, my back) decided I needed a rug break.  

But not too large a break, so I began to plan some dish towels, aka tea towels.  Just want to weave 4, for now, as I know I’ll want to put another rug warp on again, soon.

New project = new can of design worms.  So, out came the Pixeloom.  And 45 drafts later!, I have a few ideas I definitely like – this one reminds me of birds in flight, but I’m not in the mood to weave 1 shot per color right now.

This rosepath is my favorite - just enough color interest, while still maintaining some semblance of easy weaving.  This draft I will get to soon.

Also this one, which feels *very* calming, and reminds me of gemstones.  At the left side, you’ll see an abbreviated draft, creating smaller motifs.  I like to draft variations side by side so I can see which I like best, or whether the smaller set of motifs will be a good border pattern.

But, this is the simple plain weave draft I’ll be warping – just color gradations, to be repeated back from the left side, to give the needed width.   And simpler weaving can’t be found – one color/one shuttle weft. Think I’ll do 2 towels with the lt. blue weft and 2 with the natural.  Sometimes the brain, and the hands just want to get on with something, and not have to think too much!

But 45 drafts!  And you know, I could have just kept going.  I love to chart things.  I used Stitch Painter Gold to do all my color pattern charts for my knitting designs, and would much rather chart things in software, then spend hours knitting then ripping things out. 

Charts seems to multiply like rabbits, and take almost no space to store in a computer folder, where, I don’t want to see piles of knit samples all over the place.  Once I’m ready to knit a color pattern, it needs to be as close to final as it can be.  And I have a feeling, it will be this way in my weaving.  Just enough samples to clarify the idea and to store in a binder, then get on with it. 

So, guess that makes me product-oriented, at least once I am actually working with yarn, but process-oriented while working with charts or drafts.  Hmm.

Onward,
Dawn