What is on my loom - February

Handwoven Magazine

In 2003, Handwoven magazine had an issue devoted to stripes.  I love stripes and I particularly liked a set of tea towels which were is the exact colours to match my kitchen.  I wove a set and after constant use, they were looking rather tired so I wove some.  Handwoven is published by Interweave Press and you can now buy digital versions. Click here for details.

http://www.interweavestore.com/weaving/weaving-magazines

March/April 2003 issue 114
Dish towels pages 24 to 27

It is a very inspiring issue.

Two of my new tea towels. 

Another set of tea towels

I also wove a set with the colours reversed so that blue was the predominant colour. I altered the stripe width.
















I decided that I would weave some handtowels to go with these lovely tea towels.

Waffle Weave hand Towels.

I love waffle weave and chose the same colours as the new napkins I wove in January.  Do check out my blog for December 2014 when I wove a set of waffle weave hand towels.

Drawdown for waffle weave hand towels.

I used  Nialin which is a cotton/linen mix yarn equivalent to an 8/2 cotton. The waffle weave is on 7 shafts.
Sett: 24 ends per inch

Warp Order

White  36    6    6    18     6     18  
Blue         6    6    6
Yellow                         6     6


Finish with a group of blue .

Warp width at reed:;  26.5 inches (66.5 cm)
Warp width off loom before washing:  23.76 (63.5cm)

I wove several designs.  The first towel I wove as drawn in.  This was quite time consuming because colours had to be changed.  I used three shuttles.  The second towel I wove a border top and bottom of three blue stripes, two yellow stripes then three blue stripes. I wove the final length with an all white weft.  This is useful.  I had slightly miscalculated how much warp for each towel.  the final length is long but I can cut it in half and make two smaller towels.

Finishing the towels.

I used a wide zigzag stitch on the sewing machine to hem the towels. Once hemmed the tacking stitches can be removed.

To wash the towels, I put them into the washing machine with my normal wash and then into the drier.

This weave structure makes very textured towels.  The shrinkage is as follows and is measured with the towel already hemmed.

Before washing ( and after hemming): Length: 33.5 inches  Width:  22.76 inches (63.5 cm)

After washing and drying.: Length:  22 inches (55.5 cm) Width: 20.25 inches (51cm)

There is a lot of shrinkage for this weave structure. The final towels are beautifully textured.

texture of weave after washing

Two towels; only one has been washed so that the difference in size can be seen.

You can see from the picture that there is considerable shrinkage for this weave structure.   Both were the same size before I washed the top towel. However, the hand towels are very absorbent.

Hanging tag.

I also wove a narrow warp faced band to use as a hanging tab on the towels. I used the Nialin in the same colours. Here is the drawdown. There are 37 warp ends

The width of the tag is approx   0.5 inches (1.4 cm)

I have really enjoyed making items for ourselves.  Napkins, tea towels and now handtowels.  What next?

Susan J Foulkes February 2016