More updates

First off, I blocked my Equinox shawl yesterday. It turned out to have a radius of 32", and I'm happy with it. I nearly used up my entire tub of pins on the zillions of crocheted cast off loops.


I also finished the batch of three tea towels which I'd been weaving for a while. They turned out better than I thought they would, and I've been using them for actual drying up. This was a wrench to start with, but what is the point of making functional type textiles if you aren't going to use them?

I warped with two strands in each slot and one in each hole for 15 epi. The middle picture shows the waffle type weave which I used for the second towel. The weft was the same - 1 pick in one shed and 2 picks in the other. The other two used different pick up stick patterns, the third one pictured above is all over waffle type weave and it is really squishy.

Next up is the Spa cloth project from Weavezine . The loom was empty when this project was published, and I have quite a bit of thick cotton, so I thought I'd have a go. My first attempt was okay, but I was concerned that the pile loops wouldn't be very secure, so I started again, beating harder for a weft dominant fabric. I'm worried that if a loop gets pulled, it will end up a long loop too easily.

Still not convinced it would hold together, I cut this off the loom to finish it before continuing with more of them.

Above is the reverse side and below is the top before I put it in the washing machine (in a mesh bag).
Currently it is drying, and the loops are still there! How it will stand up to use remains to be seen. Warp is Twilleys Handicraft cotton and weft is Rowan Handknit cotton using a 7.5 dpi heddle.

This is about 40g of merino, so there is still 160g to go, before I get to plying. It is going to take a while I think.

Here is the front in progress of the Balletneck sweater from the book Crochet that Fits, by Mary Jane Hall. I'm using Sirdar Countrystyle double crepe DK which has been in the stash for a long time. The hook size is 4.5mm and gauge is different from the pattern, so I'm having to recalculate as usual. So far so good.