Scotty, I Need More Power!

One of the great UFO's of '07 is a set of dishtowels intended as a gift for a bridal shower back in October. I honestly believed that I could wind the warp and weave the towels in about a week. All was going well until I realized I was 20 warp threads short. I was determined to make these towels by the pattern I was following, but 20 threads short is a lot of threads. And I wanted to make 4 towels. 6 yards of warp. 490 itty bitty threads. Warp speed: sloooooooooow.


I very carefully unwound all that warp, added 20 friggin' threads and rewound. It took forever. I even enlisted the help of Hotty Hubby who not only wound bobbins of thread for the weft (and subsequently got teased ruthlessly at the gym about his "bobbins") but he learned how to turn the crank on my loom to wind the warp and claims to have dislocated his elbow in the process. (Bullocks. But it makes him feel special so play along.) The effort paid off because not only did I have the neatest warp ever, my shed is very clean and I only broke one warp thread! (I know I have lost some knitters at this point but trust me, it's all good.)


I fixed the broken warp thread by adding in a thread off the cone and weighing it with a pack of batteries (Duracell size C if you must know) and have finally started weaving. It's January, but according to Emily Post, I have 3 months to give my gift. The sad part is that I also ordered something off their registry and have been holding it hostage. I understand that I am in complete denial about what I am doing, but I am now so determined to make this happen that I have explained to my friends that their gift is, uh, back ordered and I have been so efficient at getting stuff done during Cashew's first nap that the second nap is dedicated to weaving.


And it's going well. I have finished one blue towel and have started a red one. Of course all this warp drama had me hating weaving and ready to throw in the towel. (Ha! Towel!) But once I started weaving, I fell in love all over again. It is wonderfully satisfying to watch the design grow. I have been doing a lot of plain weave and this "Huck-a-Back Blocks" is very satisfying. The draft is from Marguerite Davison's A Handweaver's Pattern Book but I got the pattern from Best Of Handwoven: Top Ten Towels on Four Shafts by Interweave Press.

Yes, I am aware that I am pushing it with this Emily Post thing, but I am determined. And completely off my rocker. Woo hoo!