The Full-Size Sample Club

To jump-start my return to weaving, I signed up to participate in an international serviette/napkin exchange. I did this once before years ago. It's really fun. We're still using, on a daily basis, the napkins I received in exchange for the ones I submitted.

I decided to weave 8-shaft broken twill blocks since our local study group is exploring twill this year. I love the look of broken twill blocks. It's one of those structures that can look way more complex than it really is. Appearance-wise, it's probably the closest you can get to damask on 8 shafts.

Since I have a lot of 8/2 unmercerized yarn that I want to use up (it's time to move on to finer and better yarns), I've going to make a whole slew of different color-combinations, all of which will work with our collection of Fiesta dishes.

Well, I'm still getting re-aquainted with my 8-shaft Harrisville loom. It's a quirky little thing. At least I think it's quirky. Maybe it's me that's quirky. And I've never weaved broken twill blocks, so I'm making full-sized samples. It's not that I don't believe in sampling. I do. It's just that I want something to show for it. And I know, from experience, that small samples and the full-sized real item do not necessarily behave the same way all the way through the final wet finishing.

Sooo, I'm in the throes of weaving boysenberry napkins, maybe about 4 of them, with gold and teal stripes. The stripes are the width of blocks, all of which are 1 inch wide and, hopefully, 1 inch square. nnnnvggggggb (That comment is from Stewart.) Of course there is lots of room for variation. It's a good exercise. I'm slowly getting on better terms with this loom. I certainly need all the practice warping that I can get. And, I'll be able to fine-tune a few things based on how these puppies turn out, especially the size of the blocks and the napkins.. Hopefully, the napkins will turn out. Well, that's sort of the point of sampling.