First up, thanks to those who voted on which fabric to use for the cycling kit.  The filigree design won narrowly over the Mayan-style print.  I’ve kind of worked out how I’ll use the print but I’ve had to put the project on hold for a little while.   I manage to pop my ankle out again and it will take a couple of months before I can try cycling again.  It’s so frustrating!!

In other news, good friends of mine have bought a retirement house  a few of hours drive from where we are now.   I’m going to miss them when they make the move permanently.    As a house-warming present, I thought I’d make a set of tea-towels for them.  I’m also being a little selfish as it was a project I could do that didn’t involve a lot of moving around, and I could work the treadles with one foot.

The weave is thick and thin – a plain weave.  It reminded me a bit of log cabin, but using different thickness thread rather than different colours.  The project is based on one featured on the cover page of  Handwoven Nov/Dec 2016 edition.  I’ve used different colours to work with their current kitchen and what I had in stash – white, black and burgundy.  The thick threads are a 8/2 cotton used doubled, and the fine thread was a 16/2 cotton.

Since I was using doubled thread, I asked DH to make me some double shuttles.  The first is made from Vic Ash and the second from Spotted Gum.  The Spotted Gum was from a flooring offcut.  Lovely timber !!!  ‘Custom’ bobbins made from plastic tube ( garden watering system risers) and circles cut from MDF sheets using a hole-saw bit.  Very agricultural but does the job.

For the first towel, I followed the first draft.  Then I started making it up as I went along, just making sure that they were the same length and the design was mirrored.  With the four towel, I decided to have a play with the design and as a result, it is very different from the others.  I kind of like it though.

So these are the four towels – hemmed and washed.