Being sick sucks…
So, as you all know, getting sick sucks. Over the past couple of years, I have had bouts with what I thought were ill-timed cases of stomach flu… those are the symptoms I had; stomach ache and fever.
A few weeks ago I had another and after running a high fever for several days. Not able to get into my doctor I called the telehealth line, they advised if it didn’t go away to go to urgent care or the ER. A day or so later it did indeed get better. Fast forward 3 weeks and I got the same thing… too soon for another stomach flu; the same thing, fever, and stomach ache.
I called my doctor and let them know that I thought maybe it was gall bladder or something and was able to get in the next day. After some poking and prodding, she said I needed to get to the ER right away and that they were going to call an ambulance.
After a horrible 23 hour ordeal in the ER, I was finally wheeled into surgery. It turns out that my appendix had perforated and leaked several weeks ago, caused a cyst, and I was lucky it hadn’t burst. I never had “traditional” appendicitis pains since my appendix apparently liked to travel and was hiding behind my colon… Good times!!
So now the weaving!
The second to last big project that I worked on this summer was from the May/June issue of Handwoven magazine. They are the turned taquete towels by Susan Poague. I loved the mid-century vibe that these had enhanced by the colors that she chose. I decided to use the same color palette the first time, believing that this was something that I would want to weave again.
I was right, these were so much fun to weave! After a few false starts with the threading and denting I was able to get started. I had enough for 5 full-length towels with enough left to play… and I came up with some marvelous alternate patterns.
The original pattern comes with circles, checks, and then a third treadling for circles that brought the underside to the top and back. These were all three wonderful patterns.
I wanted to see if there was a way to get circles and squares in the same towel. and it is possible! I love the design of this and how pronounced hte squares and circles are.
When first weaving these, I noticed that some threads were just coupling oddly. After playing around and asking advice from some of the fabulous people on the weaving groups on Facebook, I realized that there was a super simple fix. By moving the threads one dent over and splitting them (they were wound on the warping mill 2 at a time), it made them all separate. More details are HERE
I ran through several other possible patterns, some of which are listed below.
First is the square within or “I” pattern
This next one has the “eye surrounded by waves. This was a stepping stone to one of my favorites.
I love the following one, I’m sure someone has come up with it before, but I am just imagining upholstery fabric made from this. I’ve called it Eye of Ra because, well, why not?
Note that there are a few different variations on the same theme. I am excited to try this again.
So that ended the turned taquete for now. I will definitely be re-warping this one for several other towels and possibly some yardage.