Snail Spirals

I spent yesterday afternoon finishing the first two pieces off the log cabin warp. As I suspected in my post last week, I overenthusiastically overshot the length I needed for a placemat when I was weaving merrily along last week. Since I didn’t feel like reverse-weaving five inches (like I said, oops), I decided to make mats to put on top of our dressers in the bedroom.

So here’s one of the two completed pieces, off the loom but not wet finished yet. The size here is 14” x 27”.



As you can see, they’re pretty floppy-looking. After they had a trip through the laundry machines (hot wash with a load of sheets and towels, cold rinse, hot dry) and a steam press, they look like…..actual fabric!



The dimensions shrank up to 11” x 21” and they have a more stable feel. The log cabin pattern is also much more obvious. The top is the fabric straight off the loom, the bottom is after washing.



These are woven with 5/2 pearl cotton, sett at 12 ends per inch and 12(ish) picks per inch. I had some issues with beating too hard in the beginning. I think this yarn might do better at a closer sett, maybe 14 epi. Wait, I’ll be right back…I just measured the wraps per inch of the yarn, and it’s 28, so yes, 14 epi is about right for plain weave.

Though the fabric shrank up nicely in the wash, it seems just a bit loose to me. It feels wonderful, though, very smooth and drapey and light.

Garden update: The lilies have started blooming. These didn’t bloom at all last year, maybe because they were too shaded by the invasive, exotic, blackberry bushes that are bent on taking over my yard, the island, and the continent.



I also found some more garden volunteers, this time in the planter boxes. The petunias that Emma picked out last year evidently were happy, and set some seeds. All four planters have seedling petunias in them, which are just about to bloom!



This is very cool. I’ve never grown petunias from seed before. It’ll be interesting to see what the flowers look like- if they take after their solid or stripey parent.

Lastly, this is what happens when Emma spends the morning swimming and playing at the lake, then helps in the garden a bit, then is overtired enough to refuse a nap. After the crying and hysterics, I got her to sit down and said she could watch a music dvd to calm down a bit. I decided that even if I was reinforcing the lesson that hysterics make Mama let her do what she wants, it was worth it for a little peace and quiet. Five minutes into the songs, I looked up from crocheting and found that my daughter had melted.