I’m a beginner, so while the pattern called for 20 ppi, I was unable to beat that close. So I adjusted the pattern’s weft instructions and used 16ppi. I wove this on a 4 shaft table loom.
Collection: MAFA 2023 Towel Exchange
MAFA2023-024
Woven with 8/2 hemp (40%)/organic cotton (60%) yarn in both the warp and weft, ordered from Gather Textiles.
444 ends at 20 epi for a little over 22 inches in the reed (10 dent, 2 ends/dent). About 19 inches finished width.
Length was about 36″ under tension on the loom including hem. Finished length ~25 inches.
Hems were woven in pattern with 16/2 cotton, machine sewn.
Woven on a Macomber B5A 24″ floor loom (“Joanie”).
MAFA2023-021
This towel is 3/1 twill stripes of hand dyed yarn alternating with plain weave stripes. The plain weave stripes are sett at 20 epi and threaded straight draw on shafts 1-4. The twill stripes are sett at 30 epi and threaded straight draw on shafts 5-8. The warp had 340 ends of natural color for the plain weave stripes and 192 ends of hand dyed yarn for the twill stripes. The repeat shown in the draft was repeated 16 times and balanced with an end strip of natural. The treading in the draft weaves the wrong side of the towel up because that’s a simpler treadling for the 3/1 twill. The right side will have warp floats of the hand dyed yarn in the twill stripes.
MAFA2023-018
Our weaving study group had a challenge to design and weave something using a given simple profile draft.
I decided to give myself a further challenge by using a weave structure that I had not or had rarely used, and chose turned taqueté.
I used three colours in the warp – white/blue for one block and green/white for the other. I wove three tea towels each using one of the three colours for the weft and chose the one with white weft for this exchange.
The towels seem a little soft to me. So, if I were to weave these again, I might try using a sett of 22 epi and 22 ppi.
MAFA2023-017
This was from a warp that I put on to make thank you towels for my neighbor. She picked colors outside of my comfort zone, so my brief was to make towels that I liked out of colors that weren’t my favorite. I was pleased with this warm and rustic interpretation of the colors. Warp is 402 ends including fs with natural, dark brown and gold elements. Weft for the piece is a warm yellow-gold and a lighter, whiskey colored brown. Hems are 20/2 cotton in rust, and are machine hemmed. I used all 8 shafts, threaded straight draw because I wasn’t sure what treadling I would use, but for this one, I just used a 2/2 twill to let the plaid take center stage.
MAFA2023-016
6 repeats on the threading. Outside 2 are the floating selvage.
Weft:
1.5″ border,
Edge
13 repeats of middle section
Edge
1.5″ border.
Part of a 4 Season Towel kit by Lunatic Fridge Yarns by Mary Berent
MAFA2023-015
On the .wif, the first 14 thread is one edge of the towel and the other edge is the last 32 threads. Repeat the 40 threads in the middle as often as needed for the towel you are weaving. I overestimated the shrinkage of my weaving, so this is a big towel.
Warping this towel was a lot of work because of all the thread changes. I like what I got, but I am not sure I would do it again. I create a three page spreadsheet to make sure that I got all the threads in the right order while warping and then used those sheets for my threading also.
I like the towels I made, but not sure if I would do this again. I did accomplish one of my goals which was to use up some of my stash. I have a lot more of the yarns I used in the weft.