MAFA2025-3751
Description
| Weaver | Christine Asmann |
|---|---|
| Source | Traditional Design |
| Yarn | 40/2 linen used for both warp and weft. Yarn from Henry's Attic via Yarn Barn of KS. |
| EPI | 36 |
| Purpose | Towels |
| Guild | Fiber Arts Network |
|---|---|
| Collection | MAFA 2025 Towel Exchange |
| # Shafts | 8 |
| Weave Name | Birds Eye Twill |
| Weave Category | Twill Simple |
Weaver Notes
This is an adaptation of an antique towel in my collection, from Germany and dating between 1890 and 1918. It has purple and yellow stripes that are evenly spaced, but out of sync with the twill pattern.
I reverse engineered the pattern and adjusted it to make the colored stripes wider and align them evenly in the twill pattern repeats. I also made some changes to the edges, again for symmetry.
A very similar goose-eye draft is here:
https://www.handweaving.net/collection-drafts/keyword?keyword=26694&page=0
Page 122, Figure 19, Donat, Franz Large Book of Textile Patterns, Germany, 1895, #26694 on Handweaving.net. I did not use this draft, but it is very similar and this type of twill is common among my towels from this period.
The original towel is monogrammed MT, and it has a measured EPI of 42 with 37 average PPI. It appears to be lea 70 or 80 linen singles. It has plain weave selvedges and a tiny turned hem sewn by machine. My sett is less dense to account for 40/2 linen, which was the finest I had for this project.
My towel has hand sewn hems using linen thread. The colors are half-bleached and natural linen as purchased, and half-bleached linen hand dyed to approximate the colors of the original towel, in bright yellow and clear, bright purple.
The towel was woven on a Glimåkra standard coutermarche using regular shuttles and rotary temple.
