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 Handweaving.net draft was enhanced with the use of color warp stripes and can then be woven in a number of complementary weft colors. I found some errors in the original draft which I corrected and changed the widths of the straight twill, braided twill and half-basket elements and half-basket weave sections.
I used Bluegrass Mills 6/2 cotton for both warp and weft. There were 410 ends sett at 20 epi. Towels were finished with a handsewn hem then machine washed and dried.
Towel uses 2 variations of treadling with a traditional M & W twill pattern. Vary treadling and colors as desired. Floating selvedges are incorporated. Hems are woven with plain weave, folded and machine stitched. WIF file shows 2 options for colors and treadling. There are many more options.
I wet finished the towel by boiling it in water with dawn detergent for one hour and laid it flat to dry.
I used a 19th century draft for a southern counterpane from Martin Marshall an Alabama weaver. I have not been able to find the original owner of the draft attributed to a private owner in the Made in Alabama book.
Delightful Weave. Fantastic fabric. Total number of ends: 498. Increased EPI at selvedges. Serged and Hemmed.
I have started into Jane Stafford’s School of Weaving and this towel is a variation of the Asymmetry sample from the second season. I substituted turquoise where Jane used red, and enlarged the graphic to get the size towel I wanted. I played with the warp colors to get my own design.
I used 2 patterns – one was Rosalie Neilson’s from her class and one of my own created in the class. There are 4 colors in both the warp and weft. I experimented with different colors in the weft. Floating selvedges were used. There was about 15% shrinkage.
Each warp stripe is 6 ends wide, alternating black and white except between wider sections where I doubled the black stripe. Weft stripes can repeat as much as you like.
This pattern was inspired by my recent trip to New Zealand and the preponderance of black and white checked fabric I encountered there. White represents good and black represents evil. The red used for the hems represents blood or life force.
I adapted this pattern from an episode of Jane Stafford’s online Weaving School and a pattern she offers entitled “Mocking Around.”
My weaving Study Group had a plan for a towel exchange this year. I was inspired by bright colors and designed a very colorful warp to include a mixture of smooth cotton yarns and boucle. I planned some color mixing in the warp with sections of warp alternating between a smooth cotton and a cotton boucle thread. As I came to the end of my warp, I decided to experiment with some zanshi weaving using the thrums saved from my other weaving projects. I had to use care in what I chose as weft to ensure the colors did not clash with the very colorful warp. I wove a little and planned my further wefts by how the color of the woven wefts interacted with the warp. As the cloth developed, I tied more thrums to contrast the previous wefts, using care not to create a muddled mess. As the cloth grew I realized I had enough warp left to weave a whole towel! Wefts used varied from 6 strand embroidery floss (used sparingly), 10/2, 8/2, 8/4 cotton and cotton boucle.
Upon completion, I decided to enter this towel in the MAFA exchange with the hope that it will inspire others to use thrums to create cloth that not only is useful and fun, but is environmentally friendly as well. I hope you will enjoy this towel.
