Been Towel-ing

 (Originally posted on WP 4/12/21.)

Remember this project!?

Yup, it was last July, this kitchen towel warp was on the floor loom, almost woven off. I had about 20" left to do on the last (5th) towel, but then I paused one day, to tackle other life things, saying to myself that it would only be a short break, and then I'd get them done.

Yes, I am an eternal optimist. As is usual, Life took over, then Christmas, then I got sick and had to waste a month of my life in the hospital, then waste a couple more months doing very little more than recovering.

But, it is April now, and as I am almost done recouping (though I won't know for sure until I do another large set of blood labs), I need to scratch the itch which crops up every spring - the I-gotta-beautify-m -environment itch. So, along with the clearing out of old tat are the gardening plans, and revamping (aka adding to!) my list of things to sew for the house. I'm sure you know this song.

Well, it's kinda what I feel about this house. I've never liked it much, never mind loved it, but it is what we have for now, so I want to make it as beautiful as I can, not the least because when we are ready to sell it, it should look great! But until then, I *would* like to not cringe when I walk into certain rooms.

I know this past year has us all at home, experiencing our homes in a different way than we used to, and feeling a bit cramped, and maybe even a bit disgruntled about how our homes look and function. But I've always been at home, working from home, so I've been feeling this cramped and disgruntled thing a long time! But we haven't been in the position to do anything significant about it.

Well, this year that is gonna change. The old is getting fixed, recovered, redecorated, re-woven, or replaced. I don't want our home ending up looking like granny's house!  You know how it is - we acquire most of our stuff early on in our marriages and never get to change or replace it, as there are always more important priorities. Fast forward 35 years, and the house looks like it's stuck in a time warp. Heaven knows I gag when I look at real estate pics of houses stuck in the 70s or 80s. I don't want our house to make anyone gag!

So, the new kitchen towels are a small start to this process.

 

They are the first towels I've woven in many decades, and are a bit heavy, as I used yarn I had on hand - 8/4 carpet warp in 3 colors. So, I'll be getting different yarns for another set of towels, though am not sure yet which yarn. Most towel weavers like 8/2 - either as cotton or cottolin, and I'm leaning towards it, because the intermediate weight, 5/2 cotton, is generally mercerized, and I prefer unmercerized. Cotton flake is another option I'm considering, although I do like that the Brassard cottolin uses organic cotton. Considering that growing cotton uses a lot of pesticides, organic cotton is a plus.

Details
Warp and weft: 8/4 Maysville cotton warp in Natural, Colonial Light Blue, and Linen
Sett: 16 epi (8 epi with doubled ends)
Width in reed: 21"
Length woven per towel: 32"
Finished Width: 16.25-17.25" (twill towels took in more than plain weave, of course)
Finished Hemmed Length: about 26"
Finished weight plain weave towel: 6.4 ozs.
Finished weight twill towel: 8.6 ozs.

Edges were zigzagged on the machine, then the entire length of fabric was machine washed warm water with other laundry, and machine dried warm with just other towels. Towels were cut apart, then hand hemmed using a 1 strand length of the Natural color warp.

What i learned from this project
It surprised me to see that I love to weave twill! All the rag rugs I've recently woven are all plain weave. Even the handspun wool rugs I made decades ago were weft-faced plain weave. The towel I like the look of the best is the plain weave plaid towel, but the towel I like the *feel* of the best is either of the twill towels, as there's simply more surface area of the weft showing.

What I don't particularly like is how the amount of picks to the inch that twill needs really blocks the warp yarn from view, and any chance of having the plaid pattern show evenly. But, to be fair, the 2 blue weft towels also overwhelm the patterning. I didn't have enough of the Linen color to use it as weft in one towel, but it would have likely done the same thing.

This is perhaps due to the faux basketweave structure - the fact that my 16 ends to the inch were threaded as 8 epi, with doubled strands. Maybe single warp and weft strands would have interlaced better – hopefully, the next batch of towels will clarify this. I'm also hoping a single sleying of ends will keep the widthwise take-in and shrinkage down - these lost about 20%, but only in width, not length.

In the meantime, there's sewing and gardening to do.
Onward!
Dawn