More Twill Towels

This summer I made a run of towels on a 7 yard warp in a straight twill.  I loved the opportunity to try out 7 different tie-ups and treadling.  Using a white warp and different colors of weft and different treadling resulted in very different towels.  I blogged about those towels here in an earlier post.

Fancy Twill
Handweaving.net
Draft 13916

I decided that I wanted to try the same thing with a point twill.  The patterns included some that I found on pinterest, handweaving.net and A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns. The warp is an 8/4 matt cotton available from Earth Guild.  It is a very soft, not highly twisted cotton, that results in a very lush fabric that I hope is absorbent for towels.  However, set at 20 epi, some of the floats were pretty long on the cloth.  A couple of the tie-ups had floats that were 5 pics long. Hopefully, the stickiness of the yarn will keep the warp from snagging.

One of my favorites in this set uses several different weft colors in random patterns and stripes.  It reminds me of a Fair Isle sweater.  The weft for this towel was frogged from thrift store sweaters.

                                             Fancy Twill
A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns
Draft 323-2

Snowflake

Twill Thrills

Page 7

Snowflake Twill Thrills
Page 7

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure  Point Twill

Reed  12, 20 epi

Warp     Fiber  Matt Cotton

              Count  8/4

              Color  Natural

              Source  Earthguild

Warp     Width in Reed  20 "

              Ends  402

              Length  7 yds

Weft      5/2 and 8/2 cottons and some frogged cottons

Handweaving.net

Draft 61537
Date Finished  December 2013

Beat       50/50  
Size  17 1/2 x 24 1/2

A Tower of Twill Towels

Weaving on 8 shafts has given me many more options for pattern and texture than what I had with just 4 shafts.  I have been in a bit of towel rut lately and wanted to see more interesting patterns than just the plain weave on a rigid heddle loom.  Handwoven's publication Top Ten Towels on 8 Shafts, gave me lots of options, but how do you pick just one.  So instead I planned a 7 yard warp to get as much variation as possible from using different treadling and different colors of weft, while using the same structure for warp.  I warped the loom with a straight twill using a natural 4/2 cotton.  Each towel utilized a different tie-up, which meant a lot of floor time changing the tie-up.  But this was a small trade-off for warping once and getting 6 very different towels.

After weaving 6 towels, I had enough warp to complete a gamp with all of the tie-ups I used, plus one extra. So if I give them all away, I will still have a reference for future weaving.

The towels came up very thick, due to the 4/2 cotton used for the warp.  I warped it at 20 epi, which seemed about the right set for a twill using this warp.

Shaded Cord

From Top Ten Towels on 8 Shafts

 Reflections

From Top Ten Towels on 8 Shafts, also found in A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, draft 10

 Interlocking Twill

A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, draft 43

Basketry

From Top Ten Towels on 8 Shafts

 Boulder Octogang Twill

A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, draft 321

ZigZag

A Weaver's Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, draft 314

Date Finished  July 2013

Loom  Baby Wolf

Weave Structure Twills

Reed  10, doubled 20epi

Warp     Fiber  cotton, unmercerized

              Count  4/2

              Color  natural

              Mfr  

              Source  Earthguild

Warp     Width in Reed  20"

              Ends  402

              Length  7 yds

Weft      Fiber  cotton

              Count  8/2

              Color  several

              Mfr

              Source

Beat                       50/50                     

Size  20 x 30 on the loom, 17.5 X 27 after finishing

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