Before I turn your weaving world towards laces, I really want to say thank you to all of you who have supported my dream of being able to reach out to more weavers than I could ever fit in my Studio. Some of you stepped into my world at the very first episode and others have joined us along the way. Every one of you has helped me continue my love of teaching and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I hope the episodes have brought some focus and relief during this extremely difficult year.
And now it’s that time of year again….time for a wee snippet detailing our programme for 2021. I’ve spent the last 6 months preparing for our upcoming season on Lace and we have the first 5 episodes completed. Once again, I worked with my Dream Team who wove spectacular examples of the ideas presented in the episodes. The Show and Tells are incredible this year.
Before we dive into Lace we will do one more episode on Twills….I just had to tell you about Turned Twill which is one of my favourite weave structures. Then we’ll tackle Canvas Weave, Huck, Huck with Colour and Weave effects, Bronson Spot, Atwater Bronson Lace, Blended Lace and how we can get Lace and Twills all in one piece.
I hope you enjoy our little trailer,
Stay Safe kids. Sending tons of love, Jane
Laces
a study of cloth with holes
Season 5 2021 Release Dates & Yarn List
Episode 1 – Turned Twill, January 21 – Yarn: 7 cones of 8/2 cotton: 3 cones of Taupe, 2 cones of Gold, 1 cone of Red and one cone of White/Bleached. (12 towels) Jane also used lots of bobbins from her 8/2 stash
Episode 2 – Canvas Weave, February 25 – Yarn: 2 x 250 gram cones of 16/2 Venne Organic Linen in White, 1 x 100 gram cone of 16/2 Venne Organic Linen in Light Stone Grey (long sample or runner)
Episode 3 – Huck, April 1 – Yarn: 400 grams of Bambu 7 in Periwinkle (samples and a scarf)
Episode 4 – Huck Colour & Weave, May 6 – Yarn: 5 cones of 8/2 cotton, 2 Black, 2 White/Bleached and 1 Pale Limette (6 gamps)
Episode 5 – Swedish Lace, June 10 – Yarn: 2 cones of 8/4 cotton in Nile Green and 1 cone of 8/4 cotton in Denim (long sampler or runner)
Episode 6 – Bronson Spot, July 15 Yarn: TBA
Episode 7 – Atwater Bronson Lace, August 19 Yarn: TBA
This month we’re shining the weaver’s spotlight on Rebecca Logan from Stony Plain, Alberta. Rebecca is a fabulous weaver, an animal lover extraordinaire and I love her for her gardening skills. I love how she takes the seeds I sow and grows an entirely different garden from each packet of weaving seeds 🙂 Yes, we sow weaving seeds at JST and the end result is why I love to share ideas….it is such a joy to watch gardens spring up all over the place. Important take away…..be inspired by things you see around you and then take those ideas and gently guide them to your happy place.
I hope you enjoy Rebecca’s take on Tea Towel Time with Jane….
Sending tons of love Jane
When I saw Jane’s Tea Towel Time towels, I was immediately hooked. They were all so beautiful and colourful, and yet each was uniquely fascinating. I had to try them!
Although Jane’s colour choice was gorgeous, I was feeling spicy at the time, and substituted hot colours for her cools, sticking with similar values. Her black became my chocolate, the light bright green was substituted with cayenne, and the purple and peacock became merlot and magenta.
I made a mistake while winding the warp chains, missing a few repeats of the four-end sequence, so then had to repeat the error with a later warp chain for symmetry.
A run of twelve towels, each different, was like freedom at the loom. With each towel I could try something completely different, or play upon something I liked about an earlier towel. For example, I wove three towels with the same border sequence, one in straight draw twill, one in basketweave, and one in turned twill, just to be able to enjoy the subtle differences.
Another favourite was what I called the wiggles. Jane wove them as point twill treadling, but I wanted them to be more wiggle than zigzag, so played about in my weaving software to find the correct rosepath treadling that gave me those desired wiggles. That towel was so much fun I wove it twice, with different weft colours.
That towel was so much fun I wove it twice, with different weft colours.
Everyone who sees the finished towels understands how much fun they must have been to weave, although that may be my gushing enthusiasm in talking about them. I know that such long warps (12 yards, as long as I could make) no longer intimidate me. Now I see them as an opportunity for play! And maybe that was Jane’s intent – to encourage the freedom of playing at the loom.
I was lucky enough to have five different in-person classes with Jane before she went digital, and consider those weeks some to the most important in my development as a weaver. Now that the guild is available, I’m diving even deeper into the most joyful details. Weaving is a gift that will keep me interested for a lifetime, and hand woven dish towels have become my art form.
August is a month of harvest around here….we are so busy, picking, freezing and processing food from that big garden out there. Some of the first signs of fall are peeking out like the Virginia Creeper and the temperature is perfect 🙂 I know that a lot of weavers are also gardeners and the first signs of the fall are so welcome because we can put that garden to bed and put our feet up.
Sending tons of love, Jane
Majestic Maple Silk Colourway
Fall inspired silk colours in 20/2 Tussah Silk, hand dyed right here on Salt Spring Island just waiting for your loom 🙂
4 skeins of 100% Silk Spun in Switzerland 5000 yds/lb, 1100 yds/skein C$196.00
Selected Bambu Colours – 20% off Sale
We’re making some room on our shelves and discontinuing some Bambu colours. Get them soon before they are all gone!
Regular C$20.00 – Sale C$16.00 on selected colours
Don’t worry, we still carry a lot of colours in Bambu 7 & 12 🙂
These lovely scarves are perfect for spring and summer! Woven with silk on linen in alternating bands of 1/3 and 3/1 twill, they have gorgeous sheen and drape with a slightly crisp texture that will only get softer and more shimmery with wear. This pattern requires only 4 harnesses, but there are 8 different tie-ups required for weaving. If you have an 8 shaft loom, you’re stylin’, but if you have a 6 treadle loom, we’ve provided a tie-up system to ensure your success!
Here on Salt Spring Island, we are so lucky to live near both the ocean and the mountains. At Fulford Harbour you can admire the two at once, especially as you approach the island on the ferry. Lovely deep ocean views complemented by misty mountain tops – so West Coast, so subtle and inspiring.
These elegant scarves are made with two colours of our 30/2 silk woven on our 40/2 linen in a timeless 2/2 twill. The combination of crisp linen and shimmering silk is exquisite.
It’s so wonderful to once again be able to share another weaver’s exploration of the lessons learned in Colour and Design. Gail Maier has taken that knowledge and layered structures from Twills on Four to create her own unique cloth. It makes my heart sing 🙂
Check out Gail on Instagram @nesthandwovens to see more of her amazing work.
Jane
My name is Gail Maier, and I live in Victoria, British Columbia. The weaving “bug” bit me about 7 years ago – when I was lying on a woven beach towel and noticed that it was completely different on one side vs. the other. My curiosity was triggered, and I had to learn how to do that – my passion for weaving was launched!
I have been a member of the Online Guild from the start, and I have also been fortunate to take several workshops on Salt Spring Island with Jane in the past. But that didn’t include twills on four, and I was super excited when this season began.
Both threading gamps were my inspiration for this project. I wanted to show pattern possibilities by using multiple threadings in one project, without it getting too busy. So, I went back to my all-time favourite lessons from the Online Guild, Colour and Design, Jane’s first lessons. I wanted to use a strong graphic to organize the different twills and chose a three-stripe design with wide-ish borders and edges. My studio shelves have been recently restocked with luscious Venne organic cotton, and I wanted to use some of my new stash. The warm warp colours I choose were havanna, brick red and brass, set off by frames of curry which resulted in some good colour play.
I knew I wanted to fill each big stripe with a different twill, and I also thought it would look cool if the curry-coloured edges and borders could be a different twill too. So, after studying the gamps I chose 3 different point twill threadings and a straight draw threading for the borders. This allowed me to make the intersections where the twills meet have clean, sharp lines.
Twill sett used was 20 epi; I find that I can beat this sett at 20 picks per inch consistently and the resulting cloth is still sturdy enough but also has some nice drape.
The point twills are my favourites, and I selected these – #4 and 5 from the small threading gamp, and M’s and W’s from the large threading gamp. So I then figured out threading repeats by section and drafted so that the big stripes were as equal as possible in size. The warp was 450 inches long, 474 ends, enough for a dozen towels that are 33 inches on the loom and 23 ¾ inches thru the reed.
Weaving the first towel as drawn in is a great place to start. Treadling each section trompe as writ, or following the threading, resulted in some interesting different patterns. I especially liked the design created by treadling 1234 – 321 – 234 – The “wall of troy” threading. I knew I wanted to play with lots of variations, so I decided that when I overlaid ideas from prior classes I should keep one treadling throughout. Otherwise it seemed the design would get too busy.
In the next few towels I used just one treadling sequence, except when I was adding framing borders in the warp colour, curry. In these cases, they were also treadled in a straight draw, which made the frames and borders more distinctive.
My favourite technique to play with is to use colour and weave sequencing options to produce some horizontal stripes, using Fibonacci sequences. This created some really interesting variations, making the cloth look totally different – almost as if I had rethreaded it. Very cool, and this effect was most interesting when the treadling sequences were an odd number, like #5 (1234-1-4321). I used either 2 or 4 picks per stripe so two shuttles were easy to manage – one on each side of the cloth. These stripes inspired me to use this idea in a plaid, and it worked well. The resulting patterns are not traditional plaids, but it’s still plaid-like. These are some of my personal favourites, especially the purple one.
I switched out colours and pushed the combinations so that the cloth wasn’t warm anymore, using purple, deep red and turquoise weft colours.
Lessons learned from this project include the following:
small twill patterns need to be “held” in a strong graphic to make them more interesting and sophisticated looking.
proved to myself (again) that purple and turquoise can work with almost any other colour – magenta too
applying Jane’s concepts in the Colour and Design lessons are the most important to me. Learning weave structures is interesting and gives options to create cloth with different hands and for different uses, but the design lessons are always my foundation.
This was a really fun project and the resulting dozen kitchen towels are lovely; a great study in how simple little twills can make big bold statements. Great learning, and I look forward to doing another 4-shaft twill project very soon!
Hi Kids, Have I told you how wonderful you are lately?…….well you are. We have some of the most generous and amazing folks on this email list. So now you have to sit down…..those 2 “pay what you want” tea towel patterns and the auction have raised $19,641.00 and we are happy to round that to $20,000.00 for the Maiwa Foundation. Charllotte Kwon was speechless when I gave her the news on Saturday.
So thank you, thank you, thank you…..you have no idea what this means to artisans who work with Maiwa. It lets them know that there are weavers and artisans in other parts of the world who are thinking of them and sending them love. We all work with our hands, and no matter where we live, we all feel strength from creating textiles. That’s what ties our community together and we have such an awesome community!
Thank you…just one last time. Sending tons of love, Jane
Organic Spring & Easter Tea Towel Kit
Some things take a little longer than others to get up and running ….. how about these two beauties …. we tried to get these kits ready for Easter …. but July seems like a nice month …. too funny … and best intentions! 😉
This tea towel kit is made entirely of organic cotton. Weaving with organic cotton is a great way to begin supporting yarns that are respectful of the earth and the farmers that grow them. We know it is more expensive, but even if you use regular cotton for your warp and organic cotton for the weft you will still be making an important contribution. Our organic cotton is GOTS certified (Global Organic Textile Standard)
Level of Difficulty: Beginner Weave structure: Plain Weave Material: 8/2 Organic Cotton Each kit makes: 4 Towels
Loom requirements: 4 shafts, 12 dent reed and weaving width of 23 inches
We have a few more kits in stock with certified organic cotton! If you’d like to learn more about GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) check out their website.
We have a treat for you this month…..and I think we could all use a little treat 🙂
The “Stash, Crackle, Pop!” pattern is a great stash buster … you gain a lesson on Crackle Weave and … end up with some pretty eye-popping towels! This ‘pay what you want’ pattern was designed by our darling Sharon Broadley, who contributes so much to JST and can be found on Instagram as @colour.woven 🙂 You may be following her amazing daily tea-towels there, she just hit day 100!
Sharon has also been to India with Maiwa on 2 occasions and I know from travelling with her, just how supportive she is of the Maiwa Foundation’s work with textile artisans in India. So guess what? Whatever you pay for this pattern is going to the Maiwa Foundation. Let’s make what we raised for such a good cause with the Tea Towel Time with Jane fundraiser, go even further to help our fellow artisans in India.
And … our Maiwa Fundraiser is still carrying on for a few more weeks. So, if you didn’t get a chance to get your Tea Towel Time with Jane pattern, you still have time. The final date for the Fundraising Auction is scheduled for July 16th, but we’ll update you before then 😉
Jane
Stash Crackle Pop Warp & Weft Colours
Not sure if you have all the colours for the pattern? We’ve put a list together of all the cotton colours used in the Stash, Crackle Pop pattern, in case you might be missing some of them. You can purchase them right here.
Note: Stash Crackle Pop is only offered as a PDF pattern, no kits 🙂
These supremely beautiful scarves ticks all the boxes! Since they are woven with silk on merino, they are super soft and warm with silky drape, and has that magic sheen we all love. The design is simple and classic with two stripes on the warp and design options for the weft. They are one of those life-time scarves. They just won’t go out of fashion or favour. Offered in 2 colourways!
Each kit includes merino & silk yarns with the pattern to weave 2 scarves!
Melting Ice
Pewter and Shale merino with Natural and Rainy Day silk in the weft C$159.00
Chocolate & Vanilla
Suede and Vanilla merino with Violet Ice and Double Chocolate silk in the weft C$172.00
Summer Inspired Tea Towel Kits
Our much loved bouclé kits weave up quickly for a Summer project on the loom. Each kit weaves 9 tea towels and make the perfect host/hostess gifts!
This month I’m happy to introduce you to another member of our Online Guild – Arlene Kohut. Arlene is a wonderful weaver who enjoys the design possibilities of layering elements into the fabric that she weaves. You may recall Season 2’s episode on Stripes where I showed you 2 tea towels that Arlene designed layering striping and Bronson Lace. In this blog post she takes us on her journey exploring this season’s Twills on 4’s Simple Two Stripe sample.
If you would like to see more of Arlene’s weaving, you can follow her on Instagram @inkohootsweaving.
My name is Arlene Kohut. I live in Victoria, British Columbia. I started weaving 10+ years ago after my son’s Grade three teacher brought a rigid heddle loom to class for the students to weave a class project. I was able to weave a couple of inches since I was a class parent helper. Once I realized that cloth could be created from fibre woven on a loom, I was hooked.
In the past I had taken ‘Twills on Four’, the in-person class with Jane. So in January 2020 when Jane posted her first Online Guild class of the year, Season 4 – Episode 1 – Introduction to Twill & Simple Two Stripe Sample, I watched the videos and took notes. Once the video session was complete I reviewed my notes and doodles and had an ‘a-ha moment’. I kept seeing “borders” and I was intrigued with mixing plain weave and twill together. I just wanted to play on a warp ASAP.
I decided to skip the samples for this guild session and go right to weaving towels. My stash did not have enough Charcoal 8/2 Cotton but there were two cones each of Olive and Natural. My brother is having a big birthday later in the year and he likes green so why not make towels? I made the warp wider than suggested by Jane and wove a couple of inches of each technique that she demonstrated on her loom video (so I would have a condensed sample for myself). Then I started playing with what I learned from this episode.
My first sample where I could see borders and different patterns that I could incorporate into a towel.
Then a towel woven in Olive and using a fibonacci stripe sequence, continuing in the 2/2 twill pattern throughout. Just the colour changes in the stripe sequence:
2 Natural 3 Olive 5 Natural 3 Olive 2 Natural
Another towel using Olive weft and a natural for the border. Then changing the twill direction every one inch for the centre part of the towel and finishing off the towel with the same border on the other end.
This towel has the same border as the towel above but I used natural as the main towel colour. In the centre of this towel I used a direction pattern change every four picks creating a zig zag effect in the centre of the towel.
For this towel I played around with colour and design. I have a graphic below in my notes.
Lastly, I found some matching 2/16 cotton in a similar dye lot and switched to a slow clasp weft weave. This idea came from a fellow weaver, Kathy Ready. The two us throw ideas at each other so I gave Kathy’s idea a try. I found this design appealing and it gave me more ideas. So………
I made a second longer warp of 2/8 cotton. Going back to my stash I chose Chocolate for the dark side and a strand of Ivory and Beige alternating for the light side (because I only had a cone and a bit of each). Then I started to play again…….
These are some of the towels from this second warp. I used basket weave for the border on the top left towel, which I will try again. I like the colour that was created by using a strand of the Ivory and Beige. Unfortunately, I could not capture this colour on a photo. So you will have to take my word.
AND I played some more. I am not use to just weaving with neutral colours so I had to add some colour in this lot of clasp weft towels.
What have I learned from this session? Weaving these towels were fun while trying to decide where to put a border and what type. I love the texture that occurs when using plain weave in between four picks of 2/2 twill. Changing twill direction makes its own zig zag pattern. Basket weave for a horizontal border, who would have thought. This session has given me lots of new ideas to play with and I still have more ideas to try in the future.
Below, I have included my rough notes for the second sets of towels and a photo of three stripes that I wove on the last little bit of warp. I will keep this bit of weaving for future reference.
Hey kids, I just wanted to share a wee story, some great news and a great pattern.
I need to thank all of you for your continued support of JST… we feel so blessed each day when we come to work and see your orders. Most of the staff continue to work from home but Elizabeth, Sharon and I are in the studio Monday to Friday answering questions and providing continued support to our amazing community. AND because of this support we are so pleased to announce that JST will be making a $5000.00 donation to our favourite charity… The Maiwa Foundation… on behalf of all our customers.
As many of you know, the Maiwa Foundation is very near and dear to my heart. I have had the privilege of travelling to India on three occasions with Charllotte Kwon. Those trips have changed my life in ways I can’t even begin to describe. It was on one of those trips that I met Kathy Marshall from Sabahar… and working with Sabahar has also changed my life in ways I can’t even begin to describe. I know there are thousands of voices that echo my feelings about Maiwa and Charllotte.
Last week I asked Charllotte for an update and how we can help.
With 1.3 billion people, India is one of the most populous nations on Earth. The government implemented a strict 21 day lockdown, with just a few hours notice. Our artisans had to make their way back to their homes as they could, walking long distances as transit services and car traffic were shut down. Everyone remains inside their homes. People are not permitted outside, so travelling to work is out of the question.
Our business relationship with artisans has always been a long-term one and we are in regular contact with many of them. The primary concern for each of the artisans we know is not the difficulty of remaining at home but the uncertainty of the future.
The Maiwa Foundation is marshalling its resources for the uncertain future of craft. We also don’t know what the future holds, but we know it will not be easy. We want to be prepared to help where we are most needed. We know that it will be possible to keep hands on the loom, to keep the dye bath going, to plant organic cotton, to harvest, weave, dye and sew. We trust that you share our optimism and thank you for your continued support
If you would like to make your own personal donation to the Maiwa Foundation or learn more, click here.
So Now for the Towel Story!
Last month I was feeling a tad down in the dumps and realized I needed a project to bite into. I couldn’t settle on anything, kept procrastinating and finally found a picture on the JST Instagram feed that turned out to be a design by my friend Sharon Broadley (Colourwoven). I loved the colours and graphic, asked her if I could use it and all of a sudden I felt grounded again and ready to roll.
I changed the colour and weave sequence, changed the graphic a bit, did a sketch and hit the warping mill running… and then I thought about everyone else out there that might be feeling like I was and decided to try Facebook Live… like really! Apparently there are folks out there waiting for someone to make a warp live on Facebook.
So that is how this started… the next day I dressed a loom… live on Facebook Live and then I threaded it, sleyed it and wove one towel everyday for the next two weeks live on Facebook Live at 1 pm PST.
By the time I was finished it had developed into Tea Towel Time with Jane and we had created a fun, supportive, caring community with hundreds of weavers watching and asking questions.
After everything was woven and hemmed I decided that I would make the pattern available to everyone in our community at a price that anyone could pay… whatever you want :). All proceeds from the sale of the pattern will go to the Maiwa Foundation. So pay whatever you want and get your pattern here.
What will become of those towels you ask? 🙂 We’re going to have a silent auction sometime during the month of June and will let you know about that once we get it all set up.
We have also made these towels into a kit so if you’re hankering to make your own set of towels click here. Please note that I used bits and pieces from my stash in some of the towels and those colours are not included in the kit. There is enough yarn in the kit for 12 towels.
You can still view all of the Tea Towel Time with Jane episodes on the Jane Stafford Textiles FaceBook page. The quality of our live feed was not great because we live in the boonies and have very slow internet… but the banter is fun and there were some great teaching opportunities 🙂
Here we are in May, after a long couple of months, and no matter where you live in the world, you have all been affected in different ways by our current situation I actually hate saying the word. During stressful times in my life I have always been so grateful that I am a weaver and have a creative avenue to loose myself in. Being able to access our creativity at such times is marvelous. I’m sure many of you reading this feel the same way.
As I write, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and we have a beautiful little Junco family tending a nest right outside the main studio entry. For the past few months we have watched this little pair of industrious birds build their nest and now mom and dad are busy all day long bringing food to at least one mouth. The grass is growing at least a foot each day, the fruit trees are in bloom, the buds on the grapevines are pushing forth, and when I wake up each morning there are two big fat rabbits eating everything (garumph)… but they are so darned cute. So… I am starting to feel a little more normal with all this life bursting forth around me, and this spring feels so much better than any other spring… simply because of the last few months.
The world is starting open up again… a kind of spring… but a careful spring. Please continue to stay safe.
Sending you tons of love,
Jane
Fulford Mist Linen & Silk Scarves
Here on Salt Spring Island, we are so lucky to live near both the ocean and the mountains. At Fulford Harbour you can admire the two at once, especially as you approach the island on the ferry. Lovely deep ocean views complemented by misty mountain tops – so West Coast, so subtle and inspiring.
These elegant scarves are made with two colours of our 30/2 silk woven on our 40/2 linen in a timeless 2/2 twill. The combination of crisp linen and shimmering silk is exquisite.
Each Fulford Mist Scarf kit makes two stunning scarves and includes one skein of 30/2 Bombyx Margaretta Violetta, one skein of 30/2 Bombyx Salt Spring Sky, one cone of 40/2 linen Olive & one cone of 40/2 linen Teal.
We’ve added a new wee video to our “It’s the Little Things” series. This one will help you control your selvedges when weaving a 2 pick colour sequence. Check out other tips and tricks in the series in the JST Knowledge Base on our website.
Spring Inspired Tea Towel Kits
Our much loved bouclé kits weave up quickly and make wonderful gifts. We use them as hand towels in our house.
Last year we created a few runs of special colour ways and Peachy Keen was a hit. We’ve had so many requests for this colour that I’ve made it a regular part of our palette….sweet and juicy, just like my favourite summer fruit. Available in 30/2 Bombyx, 20/2 Bombyx and 20/2 Tussah 🙂
Rustic Elegance Tea Towel Kit
I’ve wanted to get this pattern written up for quite awhile and finally….it’s done. I originally created this pattern years ago for our Deluxe Weavers Retreats and this warp was coveted by everyone in those workshops. This time I’ve created Rustic Elegance Tea Towels using Venne 16/2 Organic Linen so they will last a life time and become modern heirlooms. It is a lovely study in subtle ‘colour and weave’ techniques on Huck Weft Spots. Every towel uses a different combination of colour sequencing on the same treadling. The patterns are amazing. The towels have a rustic yet modern elegance, perfect for a minimalist decor. You could weave this warp as 2 runners or 4 towels, or 1 runner and 2 towels….get the drift :).
Natty Sherlock Scarf
Just letting you know that we only have 5 Natty Sherlock Scarf Kits left in stock. This soft delicious scarf is woven with 1 skein of a wonderful 30/2 Tussar Tweed silk that is no longer available and one skein of our hand dyed 30/2 Bombyx in Chocolate Cherry. Natty Sherlock was designed by Salt Spring Island weaver Mavis MacMillan and is based on a striping sequence using the Fibonacci numerical series….there is always so much information in our patterns. When washed there is the slightest hint of collapse 🙂
It’s The Little Things
We are so lucky to have a wee post from Sandra Crompton. Sandra is the keeper of the Knowledge Base on our website and is one of the wonderful gals cheerleading and responding to your questions on the JST Forum and Ravelry. Just in case you didn’t know about the Knowledge Base…formerly known as JST’s helpline….. you can find it here. Sandra has been managing 100’s of posts each year since I first started saving all my responses to weavers questions AND, Sandra wants you to know how to STASH BUST….it’s great!
Meet My Enablers – the Cone Family!
My little tale goes like this ……. I’ve made a promise to myself that my stash can no longer continue to expand, so – before I can give myself permission to order the linen that I crave from JST, I have to use up some stash. I found part cones of several cottolin coloursthat have been aging in place for years, and decided it was time to do something with them. After playing with different graphics and – thanks to the Cone Family – I was able to calculate how much yarn was left on each cone. In order to do that, I needed to know how much each empty cone or tube weighed, which I found in the above photos. In Canada, we are fickle to our systems of measurement and flit back and forth between them. In this case, I weighed each colour and deducted the Imperial weight of the cone from the total. I checked the JST Cottolin webpage, and confirmed that there were 3,000 yards in one lb. I divided 3,000 by 16 to get the resulting number of yards per ounce – 187.5. Math is my nemesis but for some reason I really had fun getting down to the point where I knew how much yarn I had to work with.
The green was the colour I was concerned about most, so …… these are the steps I took:
My green cottolin weighed 3.10 oz Minus the tube which weighed .40 oz Weight of yarn only 2.70 oz
At that point I could convert my green into yardage –
2.70 oz X 187.5 yds. per oz = 506.25 yards of green available for my project.
I did that with all the colours and then adapted my graphic to the results.
After winding my warp to include a few tea towels plus a shawl (which will help use up bobbins of silk) I still have enough of the cottolin to mix with cotton in the tea towels. Now can I go online shopping??????
While supplies last
I’ve done a little house cleaning and put a few odds and ends in the sale bin. Hope you find something you might need 🙂
