More weaving

As we deal with the coldest start to the new year in decades, I am working on my looms.  I finished winding the warp for my Masters towels in blue, and realized I was not going to have enough yarn to weave the towels (7-1/2 yard warp), so I am waiting on weft yarn (Brassard 8/2 cotton) from Lofty Fiber.  It should be here today, but I'm not ready to warp up the Masters towels yet, so a day or two won't matter much.

I am continuing with the Rosepath Plaid towels on the Macomber.  Yesterday I finished towel #2, of 4 (I think).  I may end up with 5 towels, as I am now making these shorter than the original pattern.

I chained off the Masters towel warp, and wound a warp for a "Scarf of Lucky Colors" from my new book, Next Steps in Weaving. This one is Jaggerspun Zephyr (laceweight wool/silk) in a medium and very light gray, and a navy yarn about the same size, of unknown materials.  I suspect it may be acrylic, but I think it will work just fine in this scarf.

I'm planning to warp this on my vintage (1937, I think) 4 harness Structo loom.  I recently ordered some new reeds for this loom from Gowdey Reed, and I'm waiting for them to arrive; it probably won't be for another week or two, but in the meantime I will get the loom warped up.  It has had a recent cleaning and I gave it a nice coat of almond oil.

I should be able to get the heddles threaded, and wind on to the back beam, while I wait for the reeds.

I also plan to order a new Schacht 8 harness Baby Wolf loom soon.  I want something portable, so that I can hopefully use it for demonstrations.  The Baby Wolf can weave up to 26" wide, and that sounds like a great size for the towels I like to make.  I really want the option of 8 harnesses (my Macomber has 10, although I have only done two sets of towels on it so far).  There are so many awesome 8-harness patterns!  I'm keeping the Macomber, because it is heavy-duty enough for rugs, and because it can weave up to 40" wide - a great size for baby blankets.

Last but not least, I have been enjoying my Cotton Clouds towel kits enough that I signed up for another round!  The kits I have done so far have been great.  The instructions are all available in easily obtainable downloads; my previous kits all came from two Interweave booklets.  And they all include plenty of yarn to finish the projects.  I have been very happy with the quality of the Aurora Earth 8/2 cotton as well.  This time I signed up for the Choose Your Own Kit club, for the whole year (one kit per month).

I picked all towel kits, in some awesome patterns and colors, including one repeat from my last set of kits - the Roller Bird Bumbaret towels, which are probably my favorite weaving project ever - although the Keep It Simple towels I wove probably 10 years ago are a close second.  Looking forward to doing that kit from the 2014 club soon!  In fact, that one (Keep It Simple), being a single-color, easy-to-follow weave, would probably be a good one to warp up for demonstrations.  I still have some of those towels around!