Not Birthday Dishtowels

I've been trying to finish DD Christina's birthday towels though it appears that they will be a Mother's Day present instead. Last month she entered her fourth decade of life and I my fifth year of blogging. I'm quite surprised at the role blogging has taken in my life and still am amazed that I'm still doing it. I hurt my back and had to stop weaving, then had a frenzied week and am glad to finally be getting back to them.

I am using a lavendar/pink variegated 8/2 cotton for the warp and for the first towel, have chosen black warp. I think this one will appeal to her. That's the maple shuttle that I just got from Ed Jenkins last month. This is the first time I've used it and I like it very much.

I learned from my other variegated towels that I need a different color from the variegated yarn if I want the pattern to show throughout. I picked this color since Alexia's favorite color is pink. This was pretty assaulting on my eyes after the black. I was going to unweave and try something else, but Ian thought it was "neat" so I made the second towel pink.
The third towel is blue and the last I'm weaving in tabby with the same yarn as the warp. I hope to finish weaving off this warp tomorrow, but my back announced that it was done for today. This is the other shuttle I got from Jenkins. I can't find my receipt and I can't remember the wood, but it's substantially heavier than the maple and is a dream to weave with. It practically runs down the shuttle race by itself and is now my favorite shuttle. I don't know wood, so I asked him to pick it, and I'm thrilled with his choice.