Finnish Twill Napkins

 I'm working on a long warp of 8/2 unmercerized cotton (still plowing through the 10 cones purchased last year from Webs during the cone sale). The pattern is Finnish Twill from Davison's Handweaver's Pattern Book. I like the idea of weaving linens with names from Scandanavian countries; the last pattern I used was a Swedish Twill.

These will be napkins. Possibly a wedding present, or perhaps saved for us. The sett is 24 ends per inch, 21" wide, and each napkin is woven for a length of 25", including a 1 1/2" edging of plain weave at beginning and end of the napkin, for hemming.

They go fast, but are a bit boring to weave. On the other hand, our guild study group presentation is in one month, and I have almost nothing to show that has much to do with working on the Handweavers Guild of America Certificate of Excellence, so it might make sense to whizz through these and get something on the loom that relates to the COE! (I haven't mentioned it in months because I, like my colleagues, have been slacking on the project). Looks like our theme for our presentation may be: What I Learned from the COE that I'm Applying to non-COE Weaving.

And the truth is that the process is informing my weaving and making me a better weaver. And I'm finding the things that call to me - like hand-dyed warps, twill blocks with color-and-weave effect, and the temptation of so much more variety possible when you have 8 harnesses to weave on. My hope is to someday acquire an 8-harness floor loom...maybe a Wolf Pup? ... as I love my thirty-year-old, 4-harness Schacht floor loom.