The three towels from the blue striped warp are hemmed and in the washing machine as I type. Warp and weft was unmercerized cotton. The light blue was a mill end that I bought somewhere, and the other colors were Maysville carpet warp.

The last one is my favorite, I think. This was fun, but I was ready for something new!

Spending most of the day in a soul-searching class left me in knots, but…

I went into my studio afterwards and finished the last towel.

Now I’m relaxing with a Yuengling!

I can see the knots on the other end, so I know that I’ll be finished with this warp before the weekend is over. I’m starting to think about the next project. I’d sort of like to do a couple of scarves. I began winding some yarn on my warping board that I am intrigued with because I can’t decide if it’s the ugliest yarn I’ve ever seen or if it is fabulous. It’s something that I was either given or bought dirt-cheap about ten years ago. I’ll sleep on it and look at it again tomorrow.

The corners are a little funky on this towel because I tied too many warp ends on the side knots to the front beam. I think it will be okay once I hem it but it’s something to remember for next time.

This may not seem like a big deal, but I hemmed the second towel tonight. The big deal to me was that I was frustrated by winding a bobbin on my sewing machine for the first time in twenty plus years. I struggled and struggled because according to the directions, I was supposed to loosen a knob that wouldn’t loosen. Finally I said “screw it” and tried winding the bobbin anyway. It worked. All that effort wasted! But it did work.

I went to Jo-Ann’s this afternoon to buy supplies for the long-term project that is still shaping up in my head. It will probably involve sewing and piecework and collage and beadwork. I knew that in order to get back into this that I’d need a rotary cutter and some basic supplies. My body has changed a lot since I was 23, and my grip doesn’t care for using scissors for long periods of time. Today my elbow injury flared up again - I don’t know what triggered it, but even typing is bothering it, so I’ll have to really baby it this week.

Fortunately I have some really good inspiration to look at on the Internet. This web page gives you an idea of where I’m heading, courtesy of Sharon B., whose blog is just incredible: Fabric Postcards. I also bought a copy of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine.

I finished the second towel and cut it off the loom too. The uneven tension problems were getting worse and although it was okay on this one, it would have been frustrating on the next one. I’ll tie it back to the front tomorrow. I’m happy with this towel! This is a detail going round the front beam.

I need to buy some blue thread to hem it, but I did zig-zag the edges and it’s ready to go.

I found a great stash of stuff in the spare bedroom that I used to have as my studio. In a box of patchwork squares I put together around 1983, there was my sewing machine manual. I should move my studio every seven years just to see what turns up.

This is the second of a set of unmercerized cotton textured towels that I’ve been working on. I started running out of the light blue color early on, which means that I had to change plans. This was supposed to be just vertical stripes. This plaid of different colored horizontal stripes will help me make the decision for the next one. Right now I’m leaning toward the medium blue, using this pattern. Tonight I wove about six inches.

When I wind a long warp, I like to do each piece a different way.

Today I joined a Flickr group called Crafting 365. I hope that it will help me stay on track by encouraging me to do something in the studio (or a portable project) every day, even if it is for just 15 minutes. Every day, I’ll post a photo to this blog and to Crafting 365 of something that I’m working playing with. My hope is to always keep something going on the Baby Wolf loom, and also have a portable project, such as beading or inkle weaving, to take with me. The main project, of which the Crafting 365 is simply a part, is giving me a wealth of ideas. (In other words, Crafting 365 will be fertilizer for another garden that I’m planting.) Some of these ideas will require me to step out of my comfort zone, which I hope will be good for me. Some ideas I got from going to Susanne and John’s house, and some I got from surfing the Net.

But I’ll always keep an old-fashioned traditional rhythmic type project for when I just need to press pedals and throw shuttles.

I’ll write more about this later because I need to get away from the computer. I’m trying to rein in my time here at night.

I started wondering what it was about this pattern that made it “huck-a-back,” especially since I fooled around with it so much, and went back to Davidson’s book where my jumping off point was “Huck-a-Back Blocks” on page 82.  I’m a little unsure that there IS a definition of huck-a-back, and if there is, my version is one of the more unlikely ones.

Marguerite Davidson writes in the beginning of the chapter, “It may be a surprise to handweavers to find so large an assortment of threadings in this weave, since the commercial towels are practically the sole surviving use of the very old favorite.  It could have been included in the previous chapter on Texture Weaves, since it is also a small threading, with unique tie-up, and has its own treadle development.”

Although my threading almost matches her “Huck-a-Buck Blocks,” the tie-up is now twill and the treadling doesn’t match anything else in the chapter.  So if you’re reading this looking for a traditional huck-a-back pattern, you may want to look elsewhere!

A finished project, at last! The kitchen towels from earlier this summer, hemmed and washed. The two on the left are twill and the two on the right are plain weave, all from the same warp. I seem to be compelled to pursue more complicated patterns, but I really enjoy simple treadlings when I can lose myself in the rhythm of the weaving.

Here’s the first huckaback towel I just took off the loom. You can see the long floats that I’m unhappy with. I’m in the process of rethreading this warp and hopefully I’ll come up with a treadling I like that will avoid this problem. I like the huckaback texture between the vertical stripes.

The new pattern is not much different from the old in threading. The first treadling will echo the huckaback threading and the tie-up is straight twill.

The second treadling, since I’ll be ready for simplicity by then, will be a straight twill.

(Tabby on these tie-ups would be 1-2 and 3-4.)

I’ll probably have enough warp left for another towel, and I’ll experiment more with this WeaveDesign program. It is available as shareware for a donation from Pike’s Peak Weavers Guild. So far I like it a lot and I plan to send my donation now that I know that I’ll be using it. Unlike another freebie demo program I tried, I appreciate that this is true shareware and that I had a chance to work and experiment with it without time limits or limited capacity. This was very generous on their part!

See Update

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!