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carry on

May 20, 2015

it is a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Family Album 457HAPPY BIRTHDAY  – Jillian

finally – the towels are finished

P1060851 too much time wasted avoiding this warp

the linen threads caused serious problems

after finishing the first three towels

I cut them off and re-tied

(and seriously considered abandoning the rest of the warp!)

P1060852after 40 years of weaving, still learning lessons

P1060854what’s next?

do I tempt fate and use up more linen?

P1060856meanwhile the clematis blooms

14 Comments leave one →
  1. May 21, 2015 6:12 am

    Could you explain the problems you had weaving with linen, please ?

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    • May 21, 2015 7:32 am

      Guillaume – the problem was caused by my choice of yarn – a single ply tow linen and the fact that I mixed it with several other yarns in the warp – a 2 ply linen and several different cottons – plus 2 different weights of yarn (thick and thin). It didn’t “take up” the same as the other yarns and made loops in the warp which I had to eased out to the hem. When using a good quality linen on its own I don’t normally have any trouble.

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      • May 21, 2015 8:57 am

        Ok thanks. You mean it’s mainly because you mixed too much different types of threads in the warp, and above all poor quality linen ? What puzzles me is the word ” loops “. It was so loose that it made loops in the warp ???

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      • May 21, 2015 9:44 am

        Guillaume – the linen is not poor quality but it is a singles and “tow” unlike a smooth line linen. The linen has no stretch or give in individual threads and yes, the length of each thread became fractionally longer over the length of the weaving to produce loops.

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      • May 21, 2015 12:16 pm

        ok… interesting, thanks.

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  2. May 21, 2015 3:01 am

    This makes me even more nervous about trying linen! But you did end up with great-looking towels, at least! Is the little Jillian your granddaughter? Super cute!

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  3. May 21, 2015 1:05 am

    joys and sorrows of linen. envious of your clematis

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  4. Joanna permalink
    May 20, 2015 10:55 pm

    Love the photo of Jill!

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  5. May 20, 2015 3:44 pm

    Ah linen, gotta love it even though it drives you nuts! The towels turned out so pretty…it almost makes you forget the suffering?

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  6. Lis permalink
    May 20, 2015 10:17 am

    Happy birthday Jillian, what a lovely match the clematis is for your outfit.

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  7. May 20, 2015 8:42 am

    I’ve been snarling at linen lately, and it is snarling back grrrr!

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    • May 20, 2015 10:08 am

      Kjerstin -I love linen but this lot was particularly nasty – and I have 2 very large cones of it, think someone gave them to me because they had problems with it. SNARL!

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