Thursday, June 1, 2023

Long Time, No... Anything!

Howdy Gang!

I thought I would tell you what I have been up to. 

I am doing a towel exchange with a small group of weavers I call "The Outlanders." It has sparked a wave of creativity in me beyond anything I could have imagined! That said, I am not close to having towels to share... yet.

Meanwhile, this towel project has sparked several ideas for kits for Cotton Clouds. I call this one "Bon Appetit."

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Cotton Clouds is currently photographing this batch. Not sure when she will launch that kit. (But although I used variegated yarn, I didn't use Almost Ikat as it would require more instruction) 
 
So then I thought I would try these towels in another color palette !
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I wanted to do a rendition of Bon Appetit in Desert Dreams palette and use Almost Ikat, but the problem was that I couldn't find a variegated cotton that looked good with those colors. The one I had to use was the best option, but I didn't want to have 8" of it in the towel, so I decided to double all the BON APPETIT threads and just have an inch of ikat between the words bon AND appetit. The problem here is it was 24" wide on the loom (even knocking off an inch on the second T), but it is so smashing, instead of a towel, I am calling it a bread cloth or giant napkin.
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I just cut this off yesterday. It does satisfy the almost ikat part. But I am going to give some more thought to how to redesign this a bit. 

Meanwhile, on the Almost Ikat front, you may have already seen this on social media.
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I truly think this is the best thing I have ever woven. It is very encouraging after coming through a fallow period, proving once again WHEN YOU'RE HOT, YOU'RE HOT, AND WHEN YOU'RE NOT, YOU'RE NOT. So take heart if you are in a fallow period!!!

So I have another weaving commission to combine horoscope and almost ikat. The recipient wanted me to put almost ikat into HER weaving. I had just little bits of yarn left 
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many small warp chains using up those last bits
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I wasn't sure how those colors were going to combine with this much brighter horoscope!
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all wound back and ready to go through the heddles. It is a very different look, but you never can tell until you weave it.

Well, that's my story, and I'm stickin to it!