In The Kitchen

home made current scones

 For most families today the kitchen is the heart of the home.  It is a centre of warmth, literally and figuratively.  It is a place to prepare meals and gather informally as a family to share more than just food.

It is often the room that makes or breaks the sale of a house.  In the kitchen, efficiency, and esthetics are both important. 

For weavers, the kitchen is an inspiration to create cloth that is both beautiful and practical.  At some point in their career every hand weaver discovers the joys of hand woven tea towels.  

valentine inspired tea towel

So, what makes a good tea towel?  It must be absorbant and washable.  It should be of a practical size, not so thick that you can't use it to dry the inside of a glass and not so thin that it won't stand up to heavy use.  The colours should not fade with washing.  (The tea towel in the scone photo has been drying dishes for 10 years).  Cotton, linen (or a mix of the two) are the fibers of choice for absorbancy.  

classic twill tea towels

Weave structures that create small skips add to the absorbancy of the cloth.  Twills, huck and basket weave are good choices.  

waffle weave

simple dish cloths

dish cloths

Linda's apron

Dish cloths can be another opportunity to bring some colour and design into the kitchen.  Cotton is the ideal fiber.  Try a weave structure like waffle weave that creates a thick absorbant cloth with deep cells.  Just make sure you allow for the dramatic change in size when you first wash them.

What about dressing up the chef with an apron made from hand woven yardage.  It might be decorating in the extreme but you could match your chef's outfit with your tea towels.  You might want to reserve this special apron for baking rather than making sphagetti sauce.

Meanwhile back in the studio 

making the warp for a studio project

We have added a sunday afternoon open studio day to our schedule of regular events in order to accomodate our members who work during the week.  It takes place from 1 to 4 on the last Sunday of the month.  Drop in with whatever you are working on, borrow a book, pick up some yarn, make a warp, use the large carder or just come for a chat.

The next open studio day will be June 25th because we will be spending the afternoon of May 29th at the Qualcium Beach Family Day event.  The event runs from 1 to 4.  We will be there with our looms and spinning wheels and more.  Come along and try your hand at braiding or just stop by and say hello.