Calm Waters: Birth of 3 Baby Wraps

My niece (and goddaughter), expecting her first baby, requested that I weave a handwoven baby wrap for her.  Favorite color: turquoise.  Style request: "grown up".  I knew she grew up around the water and teaches yoga so I immediately was thinking of something soft, peaceful, organic with colors flowing from one to another.  We discussed using shades of turquoise and grays and samples went on the loom. 
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​I sent her two sets of samples: one woven on a traditional point twill threading and one woven on a modified point twill threading (for the weavers out there, I merged patterns from Strickler # 328 & 330).  The warp was a 10/2 pearl cotton warp in 2 shades of turquoise (a deep turq and an aqua) and 2 shades of gray.  I wove with several shades of pearl cotton and a fine white cottolin.

She preferred the "feathery look of the modified point twill on the far right, so that is what we went with.

Samples: Plain weave and point twill on the left, zigzag twills and modified point twill on the right.

I would weave 3 sister wraps so I measured the warp: 6 chains, each 20 1/4 yards long.  A total of 1000 ends of 10/2 pearl cotton in random stripes of 4 colors: light gray, medium gray, light turquoise/aqua and deep turquoise, to be sett at 30 ends per inch.  I "ombred" the transitions from one color to the next so that the colors flowed smoothly from one to the next across the warp - all color changes being made on the warping mill.

6 warp chains weighted and on the loom. Ready to be wound on.

Warp wound onto the back beam

View from the front of the loom

Calm Waters I: woven with white cottolin weft in progress

Middle marker applied (a tiny "LOL" label: Lamb on the Loom, Laugh out Loud, or Love Our Littles: take your pick.

The Sister Wraps

Calm Waters I: white cottolin weft. Given to my goddaughter

Calm Waters II: woven with deep turquoise pearl cotton weft. Given to my eldest niece

Calm Waters III: Woven with a light turquoise/aqua pearl cotton weft.
The wrap is a size 6, 100% cotton, and measures approximately 28 ½” x 186”.  Both ends of the wrap are hemmed.​ 
For sale in The SHOP

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