This is what I’m working on at the moment: a set of cotton striped towels in a variation of huckaback. It’s been a frustrating project. I don’t know why I decided it was time to design my own pattern blocks, after only having gotten back into weaving recently, but it’s a little late to change my mind now! I’m trying to look at it as a learning experience. The inspiration came from Marguerite Davidson’s classic A Handweaver’s Pattern Book

This pattern is not so bad. I like the texture but it has some rather long floats in the pink vertical stripes. I think that it will be okay.

I enjoyed all parts of this, including measuring the warp and threading. I found the repetitive motions relaxing, especially since I can get WVTF on my radio in the studio. What I hate is winding on the warp. I should have gotten Sandy to help me with it, but I find that frustrating too. What I need is three arms. So the tension is not as even as I would like it to be.

I made a threading mistake and caught it after I had hemstitched the end and woven a couple of inches, and so I struggled with a common choice for weavers. I could have left it alone and it would have been flawed but not very noticeable. I thought about making this one a sampler. In the end, I unwove the two inches, cut it off, corrected the threading, and retied it to the front. I’m glad that I did it because I know that I would have never seen anything but the mistake; that’s how I am!

After this towel, I’m going to change the tie-up on the treadles and see if I can come up with a design that doesn’t have the long floats. I might cut it off again, change some of the threading, and re-tie it. It really didn’t take that long when I did that.

I’m happy because I found a freeware weaving design program that I’ve been playing with that seems to suit my needs, that is, when I feel the need to play with pattern. Usually these kind of programs cost over $100. The WeaveDesign program is sponsored by Pike’s Peak Weaver’s Guild in return for a donation, which I plan to mail off now that I see that I’ll probably use the program. This website has links to more weaving design programs.

The big thrill for me today was that I hemmed my previous dish towels on my sewing machine. That might not seem like a big deal, but I have what I think is a psychological block toward sewing machines. This one was a gift from my mother in 1981, who is a talented seamstress. So I’ve got the genes for it, I just have to get over my sewing trauma now that the machine is repaired.

I also bought a new tension bar for the inkle loom, so I’ll be able to take it back down to the lake with me next weekend and weave that band for my Lake Waccamaw hat that I wanted!