🎄🎁 Merry Christmas to all my Readers

I found this Nordic Santa today on FB (no  photo accreditation sadly).    This is what Santa should look like!   Not that one made popular by a certain soda pop many years ago.  Anyhow, this gentleman's hat, coat and  boots look beautiful and functional.....  He's ready to fly tonight!

This is a different kind of Santa too. More earthy tones and rather polished appearance.  He seems to be doing quite well and can afford a better suit of clothes  I find it interesting that many cultures who don't normally celebrate Christmas, now embrace Santa and even put up a tree.   It's about peace on Earth and good will to Man.   Sadly, its in short supply with wars raging and people fleeing. 

This is where we all live. I can see no boundaries, no walls. We all breathe the same air that circles the globe.  We have no other place to go to and so we must focus on global warming as if our lives depend on it, because they do.   Everything else is a distraction to this goal.....

I'm not a religious person and  lean heavily towards embracing Nature's cycles and so the Solstice was my big day.  The days are slowly but surely getting longer.    No matter what you follow and celebrate, here's to shining a light in the darkness....

Herringbone towels 2 ....Why?... because they're fun 🎉

This is most likely the last finished project for 2023.... or maybe I can squeak out a couple of scarves before months end?  Christmas sorta slows things down for a spell!

This draft shown below may look familiar and yes I have done it before. It's a fun and easy weave and a great way to use up small part cones and play with colour.   They also make great gifts and people snap them up.   I gave a friend a choice of all the towels in my Etsy shop and she chose one of these as her gift, even though she got one last year.   So this has me thinking that us weavers perhaps over think what appeals to people? 

Last time I used white as the main colour and this time I used natural.  The colours popped just as well and  they looked somehow a bit softer when paired with weft colours.  Below is Brassard's cinnamon and periwinkle as weft yarns.    The bright colours in the weft are: royal, peacock, orange, magenta, limette, salmon pink, purple. Double ends though one heddle and one reed slot.   If using 8/2, then 22-24 epi, and if using 10/2 cottons then 26-28 epi.

The weaving is very straightforward, just hit treadles one through to six and start again.  Sometimes I'd miss number six and a slight but obvious line would appear and so after some UN-weaving I'd pay closer attention and count in my head.  It was a bit too complicated some days.....  

This is the mass of the cloth warp after just being taken off the loom. It was a satisfying armload!

So I did a rough fold up and placed it on the scale and it was 2 pounds and 13 ounces!

I serged the towels apart and then gave them a nice long soak and brief wash. Toss in the dryer for 20 minutes.

Trimmed off all the little tails and then gave them a good steam pressing. This helps to save my hands as I have arthritis. Thy do get a regular pressing when I'm turning the hems for sewing but nothing like what the press does. 

Once the hems are sewn (by hand while we watch TV), the hems get a final 'squeeze' in the press to compact the hem and smooth them after being worked.

Then the clouds rolled in and rain started and our house was dark enough at midday to have all the lights on.   Yesterday the sun came out and I quickly grabbed the camera (before my first coffee I might add.... so how's that for dedication?)

So from the top down, the weft colours are: stone ( a light grey), limette, cinnamon, taupe, blue green, ivory and periwinkle

Individual towels; I got seven towels and some samples from my 8 yard warp. The finished towels are 22" by 29.5".

periwinkle blue

Stone Grey

Limette, or what I prefer to call Key Lime

Cinnamon, or Pumpkin

This is taupe or a soft kaki green

Blue green and I must say this one is my favourite.

Ivory or I like to call it Devon Cream

Two are gone already and the rest won't last very long.  Give them a try and make a batch.

🌹🕯️

 🌹  Lorraine ~  July 1923- Nov 2023   🕯️

This is Lorraine my mother in law taken 20 years ago when we gifted her an all silk snowflake twill scarf for her 80th birthday. She was thrilled and wore it every chance she got. She even bought a new outfit and shoes!

 

Sadly, she recently passed away but at over 100 years old, Lorraine had a long and amazing life.  I had a 40 year relationship with her and  she welcomed me to the family by telling me "He's all yours my dear, I don't want him back!" A very gracious and elegant lady.