Cheaper Kitchen Towels

My Mother and Gary's Mother would be proud.  I am keeping up both families' thrifty Scottish traditions, as well as following the environmental mantra of Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.   I just finished three kitchen towels on the rigid heddle loom in yellow, green and blue.  The yarn for these towels came from thrift store cotton sweaters that I have unraveled.  Each sweater costs a mere 50 cents and probably generates 8 oz of cotton yarn.  If I were to purchase the cotton, it would run $15 for 8 oz.   The yarn from these three sweaters could probably make 10 towels.  The only other kitchen towels that I have made were during my weaving week at John C Campbell Folk School.  If I add up the tuition, the travel and meals for the week, those towels probably cost about $300 each.   Next up will be towels in Duke blue with a little Carolina blue accent.

I had some help in "frogging" (highly technical term for unraveling) the sweaters from Gary, Peggy and even Emma.  The biggest issue with frogging is the mess that it leaves behind on me, the rugs, the couch.  The other benefit, other than cheap yarn, is that it also makes weaving a little more portable.  I can always carry around a sweater to unravel even though I can't carry a loom.

Date Finished      June 1, 2012

Loom                  Rigid Heddle

Weave Structure  Plain

Reed     12 dent

Warp     Fiber  Cotton

              Count

              Color   Yellow and Green

              Source    Thrift Store Sweaters

Warp     Width in Reed   18"

              Ends  216

              Length   2 1/2 yds

Weft      Fiber   Cotton
              Count

              Color  Yellow, Green and Blue
              Mfr

              Source   Thrift Store Sweaters

Beat                       50/50                     

Size  on loom 18 x 25, finished 15 1/2 x 22

Notes