Last of the Tea Towels!

I finished weaving the last set of tea towels from kits I bought from Jane Stafford Textiles in January (I had originally thought these would be a year long project, but I was so glad I had bought them all when life changed).

These are the Huck Lace Cotton Tea Towels in the Falling Leaves colour way.

Fresh off the loom - the kit made 8 towels, each over 30" long before washing.

I added about 18" extra warp, and still had plenty of cotton leftover when finished.

Fresh off the loom the fabric looked like this-

the white line (crochet cotton) is the cutting line between towels

And after washing like this-

Seven of the towels were made with Huck Lace squares,

and one towel I wove with Warp Spots (it created a denser square). It was harder to see the pattern when I was weaving so I only did one, but I love how it looks after washing and I should have done more.

I also wove a coordinating band on the inkle loom.

Once again, I don't need loops on the towels but I love how they look.

With the extra warp I used up the leftover bits on the bobbins and wove one bobbin of boucle cotton, to make four little kitchen cloths. Two layers of fabric (one plain and one with boucle), just sewn around with a serger.

 All three types of tea towels.

I bought the kits of learn different types of weaving, which I did, plus I learned so much more. The biggest was 'just do it' - like most things in life. They were all much easier than I expected,

and now I have some nice gifts.

Finishing these towels was my April project for One Monthly Goal, from Elm Street Quilts - thanks Patty!

Best friends! 

All the best!♥︎

Keeping Busy

I probably should be cleaning my house, but instead I am spending time making things.

These are the Stay at Home Sampler blocks from Temecula Quilt Co on Instagram, 14 - 3" blocks so far.

I made a stitchery block from Marg Low Designs - it is one of the blocks from the Love and Hugs from Australia quilt along on Facebook. I always wanted to try out a little stitched block, and this was lot of fun. I enlarged the pattern to make an 8" block and turned it into a little wallhanging. It is 10"x12".

I spun up a skein of yarn as part of a Ravelry group challenge to spin our oldest fibre. This is a Stroll blend from Knit Picks. I dyed it years ago and was never happy with how it turned out - I always thought that I would re-dye it, but never got around to it.

This is a better representation of the colour - it came out better than I thought it would. I plan on making a pair of slippers with it.

I dyed up some more fibre (a BFL/nylon blend for socks).

This one came out the colours I wanted.

I am knitting a summer sweater out of Lindy Chain from Knit Picks - some of it I dyed with indigo dye last summer. The pattern is Sun Tea by Laura Aylor. I am using a Helical Knitting (link for YouTube video I used) to alternate the two skeins of hand dyed yarn in case they are slightly different colours. It is a fabulous technique and would be great for jogless stripes in the round.

I am still weaving tea towels too.

I started seeds for the garden and they are doing well - lots of tomatoes and peppers so far.

Photos from around-

 A couple of Canada Geese by the pond.

 Melting snow in the ditch.

 I can't resist cloud pictures,

 these ones were amazing.

 Best friends!

All the best!♥︎

Back Sewing!

Basement renovations started at the beginning of March, and now that normal activities are on COVID-19 hold, we decided to make the basement liveable. The new walls are up and some of the electric is done.

This is the start of my new sewing room! I am not unpacking everything, because there is still lots that needs to be done. I am so happy to have somewhere to sew again!

So far I sewed the first six blocks of a new mystery sew-along from Temecula Quilt Company, called Stay at Home Sampler (I think it is just on Instagram - link, and Facebook). These are 3" blocks, and the sew-along is for the month of April.

I made a new anti-predation collar cover for the cat.

She looks like she is ready for Halloween. I think I will make her a pink one next - it is very muddy outside and it is good to have a few collar covers. The bright collar covers seem to stop her catching birds, and she still catches plenty of rodents.

I also made a few masks (something I never thought I would have to make). The pattern is the Olson mask. It was very easy to make.

Photos from around-

We've seen a few different tracks around-

 Maybe skunk,

and Canada Goose (these ones are surprisingly big).

Going for a walk.

Today we had an assortment of weather - wind, rain, ice pellets, snow, sunshine, dark clouds... 

 The sky was amazing, and changed so fast. 

 By the end of the day we ended up with snow that stuck.

All the best!♥︎

April Goal

My One Monthly Goal for April (hosted by Elm Street Quilts) is to weave another set of tea towels.

This is the last of the kits I bought from Jane Stafford Textiles. These are to learn Huck Lace - again much easier to weave than I thought it would be. Made from plain 8/2 cotton, the kit is for 8 towels.

Each set of towels I have made I have had to deal with some kind of a weaving issue (a great way to learn! A few loose warp threads with the first ones, and replacing a warp thread with the second ones), for this one I made a mistake while threading the heddles (the wire pieces that hold the yarn and create the pattern), and had to move threads around and add a couple of repair heddles (made from cottolin) - probably not the correct thing to do, but it worked for me.

It results in some of the warp threads not having the right spacing, but I hope it will all come out in the wash! I didn't want to re-thread over 400 threads.

Photos from around -

 We had a snow storm last week (the second biggest snow fall this winter).

 Frost on the weeds in the ditch.

 The puppy running circles around the cat.

All the best!♥︎