MAFA2019-047

I used cotton (unmercerized) for both warp and weft. Length shrinkage was close to 20% while width was a more expected 10%. I added a band woven using a tabby treadling at one end of the towel. An easy weave and the design is pleasantly different on each side. My color choice was natural for the warp and a brownish eggplant for the weft. Once woven, the brownish eggplant appears as a dark brown. Not a cheerful color but it won’t show stains easily!

MAFA2019-048

Using the idea that if six colors is good, 60 would be better, I chose yarns from the blues and greens in my 10/2 stash, included cotton I had hand dyed, and wound various stripes onto the warping board, trying to balance colors and vary width of stripes. Although I warp back to front, I then threaded different designs grouping and separating as I thought looked nice. I varied stripes and complimented plain weave with two-two twill, sometimes rising, sometimes falling.

What has resulted is a one-of-a-kind towel that I couldn’t reproduce if I wanted to!

The towel is machine hemmed, but with a foot peddle powered sewing machine, which I take to be about as hand made as using my loom.

The draft file I have attached is a sample, not the whole towel.