Here is my latest turned draft: Turned Summer and Winter Dots. Dots as opposed to circles, which are really nothing more than big dots. It’s all a matter of scale. 😉

The origin of this draft began in the January/February 2015 issue of Handwoven Magazine with the Summer and Winter with a Twist Polka-Dot Towels by Linda Adamson. This is an 8-shaft draft with a tie-up that requires a whole lot of treadles, with the best case scenario being that you just keep re-tieing (if you don’t have 18 treadles on your loom!). I’ve always wanted to try this draft, but the tie-up was a road-block. Naturally, I thought turning the draft might be a solution.

The first time I turned the draft I got a 10-shaft result and I thought “cool!” and immediately put a warp on my Ashford table loom. This black rayon chenille with the multi-color dots was my first try. It worked great. But. I was about 75% finished when I realized that shaft number 3 had not been threaded at all. This wasn’t my error though. Fiberworks just left it out when it turned the draft. So…. I ran the optimize draft function (might have been in Pixeloom, I can’t really remember) and that reduced the draft to 9 shafts.

This 8/2 rayon scarf is the 9-shaft version. It worked just fine as you can see. Notice that the dots are treadled with more repeats in the center. Scaling down widthwise due to yarn thickness caused me to scale up lengthwise. Dots are fussy like that.

I’m not sharing the draft yet, because I’m hoping to edit the draft to 8 shafts. I very much like the 8/2 rayon. I sett it at 24 epi, and each dot is 16 ends wide including spaces between them.

Lest you think that all I do is weave circles: I have some woven yardage in my future, which I will use for sewing some pants. I will be using up odds and ends of 10/2 cotton in colors that play well together. I’ve also been weaving a selection of rayon chenille scarves for my Etsy shop.

Last but not least, I want to thank all my readers who purchased a copy of the Turned Taqueté Circles Placemats Weaving Pattern PDF + WIF from my Etsy shop. Your response was really exciting. Next I want to see examples of your work!