452 ends
I put on a long warp and regretted it later; with the color changes it was slow weaving. I was unable to find an attractive way to carry the colors along a selvage.
I liked the use of two shafts to create a plain weave border at each selvage. It solved the issue of the long floats at deflected DW selvages.
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.
This is my expression of pansies viewed through a window. Used Kathryn Weber ‘s Blazing Shuttles for warp with white cotton and purple accents for warp.
Structure was plainweave with two overshot accents in the weft—one narrow purple and one wider of white. Floating selvages were used with 411 ends.
Towel was hand washed in hot water, air dried, and pressed with a dry iron. Fringe ending and handstitched selvage edge hems.
I have not been able to weave at home for over five years and this project was a great challenge for renewing the weaving cells in my brain. A fun project.
Twill blocks in 4 warp colors (red, black, grey, white) with block changes not coinciding with color changes. Blocks were woven as 3/1 and 1/3 twill rotating the same four colors as the warp. Color changes were made every 16 picks, alternating which side the new color started on to reduce bulk of weft ends.
Width in reed was 24″. The towel finished width (draw-in and shrinkage) was 21.5″. Towels were woven with 1 3/4″ hem, 36″ pattern, and 1 3/4″ hem under tension. Finished towel length after hemming was 30.5″. PPI were approximately 22 under tension.
Detailed instructions for doing the mock damask are in the 1994 May/June Handwoven magazine. Take your time on pick-up work. Wrong threads can occasionally get caught resulting in very long floats and it’s difficult un-weaving pick-up work . The instruction don’t indicate it but you should leave your pick-up stick in between the second and third pick-up indicated on the draft. I found a long cable knitting needle work really well for the pick-up work. After the pick-up work the towels weave really fast.
