Shafts: 8

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Based on the fall coloration of raspberry leaves.
Repp playing off inkle band design.

20 1/2 ” x 13″

514 working ends, so 1028 warp threads.

Each 10/2 end, despite working as double threads, was threaded separately to organize the color mixing in each 2 end weaving unit. The beat was 5 double picks/” on the loom, 4.5/” finished. I used relatively loose warp tension and beat hard with a shed stick in the upcoming shed. The thick weft was twisted at the selvedge. Thin wefts were treated as if for an inkle band, by leaving a weft loop, beating and then pulling the far side loopy weft snug against the selvedge.

Colors used: UKI navy & purple, purple passion, pacific blue, deep turquoise, Lunatic Fringe copper, kelp, forest, 5 red-purple

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The idea for this runner is from Mary Meigs Atwater’s Recipe Book; series V, number 11, titled botanical garden. I used her profile draft but altered my tie up to create buildings and trees versus her garden.
It was a pleasure to weave and my next go at it will be with a colored warp.

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I wove this piece in the hopes of achieving the appearance of a grid (3 D) on the finished textile (see picture 2). I couldn’t bear to weave all gray double weave so I added color to one side of the warp to add some vibrancy.

There are some 3 dimensional aspects even on the colored half where I tried to create an overlying grid. (See picture 3).

A wif does not portray the double weave structure so is not included. However, I used traditional two block double weave on an 8 shaft loom and varied between the four possible tie ups. My color draft and tie ups are pictured.

The piece now hangs as a doorway curtain leading into the yoga room of our home.

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This towel has 408 ends in the warp and was woven to 31 inches long. I began with a 9.5 yard long warp and wove 10 towels. It is my belief that a long warp gives the weaver a large variety of places to play. It also is very economical as far as loom waste is concerned. A warp for one towel has the same amount of loom waste as for for 10 or more towels. 200 yards of loom waste is average for dish towels! Think of the cost and then decide to make many towels using different weft colors and new tie ups or treadlings. This is what I call weaving fun! Additionally, I rarely have only one color in the warp.

I weave a towel as my heart desires, weave two shots of scrap weft and then begin the next towel. When the warp comes to an end and I remove it from the loom, I will sew a row of zigzag stitches at each end of each towel. Next I put the entire warp in the washer and add very warm water, let the towels soak for about 20 minutes and then allow the washer to finish the load. They go to the dryer next and tumble until barely damp. I steam press each towel and cut it from the warp. I then make a narrow turned hem and stitch it with small blind hem stitches. A final pressing and all is finished, I stand back to admire the play of colors and textures.

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I used the draw down from Handweaving.net number 61229.
I used a 15 dent reed sett 20 epi.
Warped 444 threads 442 for the pattern and 2 for floating selvedge.
In the loom they were 22 inches wide and 30 inches long. After wash and hemming they were 18.5 wide and 25.5 long.
With the draw down from handweaving.net I added a border on each side of 8 threads per side and add a 2 in border pick at bottom and top of the towel.

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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.

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This towel was adapted from a Colour-and-Weave Baby Blanket that I designed for a study group project.
It is log cabin colour-and-weave overlaid on broken twill blocks – with the colour order of the blocks being LDLD DLDL.

I wove three towels – one tromp-as-writ; one using natural weft; and one using rose weft. Each of the single weft colour towels was woven with a straight twill treadling.
I chose the tromp-as-writ towel for the exchange.

Towel uses two colours – one dark and one light – for this towel I chose rose and natural.
408 ends plus 1 floating selvedge each side = 410 ends total
Finished size: 17″x26″

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The threading is called huck variation by Russell E. Groff. I experimented with twill tie ups, but treadled as drawn, 121, 343, 121, 565, 787, 565.

Weaving in the reed was 20.5, “ and the shrinkage was 15%.

Total warp ends: 414 plus 1 floating selvage on each side.

Towel was hand hemmed.

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282 ends. Advanced twill threading inspired by Susan Balascio.

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Wind on 500 ends: 496 for the threading and 2 doubled floating selvedges (which I like for strength in a workhorse handwoven) Be sure to keep a record of your color order for symmetry. I found it best to create threading blocks divisible by 4 to accommodate winding on two or four threads at a time. Width on loom was 20 2/3″ and after wet finishing lost about 10%. I hemstitched after wet finishing.

Be sure to put on lots of warp–two block turned twill permits so much experimentation with colors and block heights. My draft includes the threading and tie-up I used, plus my color order, but possible treadlings are so many. I utilized only one color (from the warp) in the weft but you can create variety with Fibonacci orders, plaids, and additional colors. Be sure to keep precise notes!

My 8/2 cotton was from Great Northern and the cottolin is Bockens’ “Nialin”.