Just in the "Nick" of time

I cut these off the loom, put them through the washer and dryer on hot, because I want people to know they can USE these tea towels and they won't look different, or shrink or whatever. Anyhow, I did all this a week ago. Then I warped one of my painted scarf warps (photos of those later on), wove one of the warps off and half of the next, and still the tea towels sat on the couch, unfinished.

When I'm on a time schedule, as I am now, it's really difficult to make myself sit down for several hours and hem tea towels. I absolutely believe they need to be hand-hemmed. I don't feel right about them if they're not. But it takes time. Probably half an hour per tea towel for the actually hand work.

As it happened, I spent this weekend with my sister, who is undergoing chemo, and took her to her treatments, cooked, talked, kept up with meds, etc. I am SO happy to be able to do this. AND, there was lots of time for handwork. So, I got the tea towels hemmed, got I-chord made for my felted bag, which will go in the washer Monday, and I'm knitting on a pair of Christmas slippers. Whoo-hoo! Good weekend for getting handwork done!

Here are the tea towels. The pattern is Waldenweave by Bertha Gray Hayes. Warp is 10/2 unmercerized natural.




There are a couple blues (one crossed with an 8/2 and one with a double strand of 20/2), a set of green (8/2 cross), a set of moroon-ish red (8/2 cross), a single blues-ish one crossed with one thread of variegated 20/2 and a coordinating solid 20/2, and a set crossed with a cotton/linen slub. The tabby on most was 20/2 in cream, but on the green ones, I used a light brown tabby, and the maroon ones have a very light yellows and natural variegated tabby.

I hemmed them, then ran them through another wash (cold) and damp dried them (just to get them thoroughly damp), then hard pressed with an iron, laying them flat to finish drying, and they're done. Done!

I also twisted fringe on the two scarves, wet finished and ironed them, and they're rolled up in the suitcase.

It was a good weekend. I would never have been able to make myself sit through that much handwork in a row at home.

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