FO: Woven Dishcloths

Pattern: It's just plain weave (aka tabby) where each weft thread crosses the warp alternating over and under to form a simple criss-cross pattern.

Yarn: The warp is a natural colour dishcloth cotton that I bought as millends from the Spinrite Factory Outlet sale - probably a factory second of Bernat Handicrafter cotton. For the weft I used more of the same with stripes of leftover Bernat Handicrafter cotton in White, Country Red, Terra Firma Ombre and Indigo.

Comments: Dressing the loom with the warp threads is time-consuming so I decided to warp up several feet, weave it from start to finish and then cut apart the final woven fabric into a few squarish cloths. Right now I'm using a warping peg as shown in this video, but DH has agreed to make me a warping board as soon as I draw up the plans. That might make things easier :)

Because I'm new to weaving I decided I should aim simply for a balanced weave and work at my tension to achieve neat selvedge edges. Looks to me like the natural cotton is thinner than the coloured cottons because my weave looks balanced when I'm using the same yarn for warp and weft but the balance is off at the stripes. My selvedges still need a lot of work.

Cutting the fabric into smaller squares was nerve-wracking. I did three things to hem each end. I hem-stitched on the loom using the dishcloth cotton according to this video. That would probably be sufficient if I were leaving a fringe. I cut the cloths apart between two weft threads (aka picks), used my sewing machine to zigzag those edges, then rolled to form a hem and straight stitched on the machine to finish them.

My resulting hems are pretty chunky. Well you can imagine, as they are essentially three thicknesses of dishcloth cotton. I googled to gather more ideas about hemming. One suggestion was to run one pick of a bulky thread through where you want your fold and then pull it out to leave a gap which will fold quite readily. Another suggestion was to use a much thinner thread for the weft at the hem area - even as thin as sewing thread - to create a much thinner fabric in this area for less bulky hems. I plan to give both suggestions a try on my next project.

You may have also noticed that red sock in the first photo. The first sock is done, but as the second is still on the needles it doesn't really count as a finished object does it? One more thing in that photo? Our first snow! The neighbourhood kids are thrilled that they finally got some tobogganing weather!  It's Friday, so why not spend some time at Tami's Amis to see what everyone else has finished?!