I was influenced by the piece Vavstuga had for Bockens Egyptian 8/2 cotton on their website (store.vavstuga.com/product/yarn-bock-cot-8-2-dyed.html). Their current piece is actually a little different, as the one that influenced me had some red accent yarns in warp and weft. I liked the combination of yellow and light green, with the red accent.
Shafts: 4
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Note that the heddle count is significantly greater for harnesses 2 and 3 and minimal for harnesses 1 and 4.
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I was introduced to this pattern, “Checked Houndstooth,” in a Scandinavian Towel class taught by Melissa Weaver Dunning. This traditional design can be found in Simple Weaves by Birgitta Bengtsson Bjork & Tina Ingell, p. 92.
Warp is wound 36 Periwinkle, 4 Marine, 4 White, 4 M, 4W, 4M, 4W, 4M, 4W, 4M—a total of 72 ends in one repeat, ending with 36 Periwinkle to balance. Add an extra 4 threads for EACH selvage, doubling the first and last four threads. Weft color order is the same.
Materials used were 8/2 Brassard Cottolins in Periwinkle, Marine, and Blanchi (White).
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The original draft I found on the Schacht website had 414 ends, so I adjusted to 430 ends to meet the necessary width requirement. I also used a simplified threading, a draft of which was supplied to me by Judie Eatough.
I machine washed the towel in cold water and dried in the dryer on high heat to wet set. The towel was then pressed using a cotton and steam setting on my iron.
I used a 12 yard warp of 8/2 ring spun cotton and used Brassard’s 8/2 cotton for weft in the color Vieu Blue.
The towel was machine hemmed.
I love weaving these towels as the pattern is so easy to memorize and you can just weave almost without thought. The easy simplified threading I used makes threading the heddles an easy task.
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I varied Jane’s original design, but started with her ideas. My fiber is actually cotton boucle and cottolin.
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I made 6 towels on this warp. For all the towels except this one, I used 8/2 cotton. On this towel, I used a thicker cotton (Conshohocken ‘Softball’ cotton, color 088 – cherry). It made the whole towel very fluffy and I loved it.
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I just started weaving in August 2020. My fiber friends, who are also weavers, encouraged me to join Jane Stafford’s Online Guild. I fell in love with Jane’s boucle towel kits and bought two for the colors. However, I wanted to try something I had not seen, towels woven with 8/4 cotton as warp, with the goal being a thick absorbent towel with texture. For added texture, the warp in the center was created by alternating 8/4 cotton warp with a matching boucle yarn. I wanted to see if there would be much difference between the combo 8/4 cotton + cotton boucle versus 8/4 cotton alone.
The towel weft was woven with boucle alone, alternating colors and weaving inches to follow Fibonacci sequences (1, 2 ,3, 5, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1). Color progression: aqua, orange, light green, fuchsia, and purple. I wanted the colors to play together in the towel to create visual interest. While I was very reluctant to weave with purple boucle as part of my design, I found this color series one of my favorites. Interestingly, after finishing, there did not seem to be a great textural difference between the areas woven with the 8/4 cotton + boucle combo or in the 8/4 cotton warp alone.
The hems were woven with 16/2 cotton and hand stitched. I hope you will enjoy this towel as much as I enjoyed weaving it!
Warp: 12epi 8/4 carpet warp, 266 warp ends total.
Sley: 20 ends peacock, 6 black, 45 jade, 6 black, 56 each peacock and peacock boucle, 6 black, 45 jade, 6 black, 20 peacock
Weft: cotton boucle in aqua, orange, light green, fuchsia, and purple
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This was fun and fast to weave.
24 epi
24 ppi
576 ends and 2 floating selvages
I simplified the treadling for a less busy effect.
Before finishing: 26″ long x 22″ wide
After finishing: 22″ long x 20.5″ wide
Shrinkage: 22%
Machine wash cool, normal cycle; 20 minutes heated dryer; pressed
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The loom was warped for a total of four towels. A total of 434 ends at 20 epi for the warp and 20 ppi for the weft. Allowance of two inches at the top and bottom of each towel. Using Fibonacci as my theme in color and design. The red and yellow thread is of a boucle type.
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The treadling was adjusted to allow squared blocks, with 8/2 Brassard cotton used for warp and weft. After being washed, the texture is nubby and more pronounced. The weaving width in the reed was 20.75″. I like the look and enjoy the process of hemming by hand. Changing weft colors gives so many different variations and shades and made it a fun project to weave.