I did a lot of weaving in 2025 but I didn’t take a lot of pictures of what I made.  As per usual, I wove towels on my little loom when I was demonstrating at the National Parks.  My big loom, however, sat empty all year.  All year it was sad and lonely and calling out to me.  But I didn’t hear because I was busy doing other things.

I wove five batches of “vanilla” towels while I was working in the National Parks.  I set up the traveling loom before I get to a park because watching me warp a loom is pretty boring.  By warping it while I am still at home, I can take my time and then start weaving as soon as I get to a park.

I warp on the same basic towels every time.  I use a natural colored base because everything goes with that.  Then I add some combination of colors and stripes depending on what colors I have in my stash.  I play around with the weft so that each towel in the set is unique.  There are 12 to 14 towels in a batch depending on how long they get.

The towels I weave at Fort Frederica National Monument get sold in the gift shop and I get reimbursed for my yarn costs.  I don’t get reimbursed for the yarn costs at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park so I give away those towels.  Every ranger got a towel.

This year I had a couple of weaving helpers at Cumberland Gap.  Ranger Kymberlyn really enjoyed weaving and would come up whenever she had a chance.  She liked playing with colors and kept asking me if I had more colors she could use.  She was very bold in her combinations and created some fun things.  I don’t have a picture of any of her towels because I let her keep them to give away.

Ranger Sam also helped me in the textile room.  She was with me on Sunday afternoons and did a variety of tasks.  She learned how to use the walking wheel for spinning and spent most of her time on that.  But she also worked on the looms and she kept a towel that she wove.  Most of the towels went as gifts to the rangers, but I brought home most of the last batch because they were still on the loom.

In effort to use up yarn that I already had, I warped the loom with linen.  I bought it a few years ago and then decided it was too hard to work with.  With more experience under my belt, I decided to try it again.  I wanted to make some cloth to make a new haversack for Tom.  I wove a very long section of natural linen and then a section that had stripes.  I haven’t sewed it up yet, but I hope to get to it this spring.

When I got home in the fall, I started in on Christmas presents.  I wove Jelly Roll placemats.  I thought I would just make one batch, but I enjoyed them so much that I ended up making three batches.  Which was 30 placemats all together.

To make Jelly Roll placemats, I had to cut up strips of Jelly Roll fabric.  These are usually 40 strips of coordinated colors that come in a roll.  The different patterns make them fun to use.  I had to cut every strip into four pieces and then sew the ends together.  Eight sewn together strips filled one shuttle and it took 32 strips, generally, to make one placemat.  Preparing the strips was the most time consuming part.

Once I cut up the strips and then sewed them together, the weaving went really quickly.  It was fun to see the ways the colors melded together.  None of the patterns was distinct in the placemats, so they had more of a hint of pattern or color.  Although it was very time-consuming, it was also fun and I enjoyed making them.  I might have to make another batch because Tom was disappointed that we didn’t get any.  He really likes them.  It was a good football season project.

I wrote about the first batch of Jelly Roll Placemats in this post.  With the 30 that I made as gifts, I gave four to each of the couples in the family.  The two left over went to nephew Devon who has his own house.

That was my weaving for 2025.  It was a good year with a lot of productive cloth produced.  I have several special projects planned for 2026, although I am sure some vanilla towels will be on the loom as well.