New Triangle Shawls

I learned to weave as a child but when I came back to it decades later, the first thing I wove was a triangle shawl.  It was mostly a matter of convenience.  I had just ordered my very first spinning wheel and it was back ordered.  How would I survive 6 whole weeks?  I had seen the triangle looms at Hillcreek Fiber Studio in Columbus, MO, where I had spent three days learning how to spin.  I thought they were great - fun and easy and a great way to use up all the wonderful yarn I was going to spin.  I ordered a 7" tri with all the additional fun stuff - a stand, shed sticks, etc.  The tri loom arrived immediately and the spinning wheel took it's time coming.  So I wove until I could spin.  To all you spinners out there.... yes, I also spent time on the dreaded drop spindle so I wouldn't loose what I had struggled three whole days to learn.  I hated it but felt I would be better off in the long run if I just kept practicing.

Funny how things turn out.  I love spinning on a drop spindle and carry one with me most times.  I drop spindled all the way across the Pacific Ocean and on every other plane I've ever been on since I learned how to spin.  I still love the tri loom.  You can change your pattern, yarn, sett, structrure on the fly which is really fun.  But then I moved to the floor loom.  I still have the one my grandmother bought for me when I was 13 but I've added a couple more.  The Cranbrook for rugs and the 8 shaft Gilmore that has become my kitchen towel loom.

I love weaving kitchen towels and have done set after set for the last couple of years.  I love the linen and the cottolin and they make such wonderful kitchen towels.  So no one was more surprised than I when my big tri loom started calling to me.  I'm just finishing up my 6th tri shawl in the last 6 weeks.  For some reason, after not weaving on a tri, except as a demonstration, I can't seem to put it away.  I have the next shawl all planned before the current one is finished.

Here are the most recent creations:

Peggy did the lovely red shawl but the rest are mine.  We have Merino and other wools, silk, mohair, cotton, llama and alpaca in thick yarns and thin yarns and boucles, commercial and hand spun.  Cool.

The last shawl I'm weaving is made from my very first handspun.  It happens to be all natural colored wool and I've been saving it for years until I could figure out what to do with it.

Your first hand spun is special.  It's usually lumpy and bumpy and overtwisted and understwisted and something you will never be able to make again once you have more experience.  And it's worthy of something wonderful. 

Mittens or a scarf are pretty common but we don't have long enough winters here for me to use them much.  A shawl is actually more useful for me.  Plus the fact that this one is all hand spun and has no dyes, it will be perfect for any time period re-enactment.  I will look stunning in Nov at the Civil War Re-enactment at Liendo Plantation!

So the shawl from my first hand spun yarn won't be for sale but the others are slowly making their way to the website.  Come and take a look at them!  Peggy has now put me on shawl-probation.  We have three shows coming up in April and June and have no kitchen towels for sale.... None.  As soon as I finish up this last shawl it's back to the Gilmore and more towels.  Not a bad thing at all.  I love kitchen towels...