Backstrap Towels

I want to make some more towels with cotton yarn. I use the thick Sugar N Creme and Peaches and Cream yarns. The towels are part of my apprenticeship as a weaver.

Above are the sticks I'll be using for my backstrap loom. I plan to make two towels. The ends tied to the loom bars will be twined for a finished selvedge. I'll weave halfway through and turn the loom around and weave the other half. Then I'll cut in the middle. The towels will have three finished edges. The last edges will be hemstitched and fringed.


Using 24 inch hardwood sticks clamped to the chairs, the warp is wound at 56 inch. You can see a metal box that was jammed between the chair and table to keep the spacing constant. The tight continous warp wants to pull the chairs together. The sett will be 10 warp per inch. There is 6 inch of variegated pastel, then 4 inch of white in middle, and 6 inch more of pastel. The finished width will be 16 inch. And I put safety strings to hold the cross.


I'll twine my piece tomorrow, so I just rolled up the warp with the flat sticks and put it in the bag. I love this part of backstrap weaving. I was actually going to use a rigid heddle loom, but my heddle is missing! It's nice to have a backstrap loom as a backup loom!

Have a good day!

Shelf Help

Today's entry is some pictures I took a six months ago. When we first moved into the condo, we have fewer closets than the last house. So my fiber stuff kind of piled up in the living room next to the television cabinet.

Here is my craft frame, my bag with a backstrap loom, the Cricket loom on a table, the empty Cricket box, bags of yarn, and boxes of stuff. Big mess!



So we went to IKEA and bought this 8 hole shelf unit for about $70. Then we bought six fabric baskets for $30. All the yarn and stuff went into the baskets. The Cricket loom on the folding table is just off to the left. The empty Cricket box is going to the outside storage unit.

This shelf unit has been a great place to organize yarns, hide tools and books. Even though the Cricket still sits out on the folding table when in use, having the other items out of sight is a big improvement. The craft frame hides behind the shelf unit when not in use.

We left the upper two holes open for displaying knick knacks. The top is good for displaying pictures.

This was definitely worth the expense. Having the extra storage in the condo is great. I like having it next to the television so I can grab stuff when I find myself with empty hands.

So that's it for now!
Have a good day!