I got 8 towels woven. Natural (unbleached & undyed) cotton threaded in point twill, 4 different tie ups, 2 of each weave pattern.
First I wove what I call a flower pattern. Wasn’t my favorite in real life, nor did I like dark that yarn – which was very cool on the cone – as much as I thought I would.
Next I wove snowflakes. Started with a traditional blue, then went to some handpainted bamboo-cotton blend I’ve had hanging around for far too long. I was very happy to use up some stash yarn in small amounts, so went with more of that handpainted bamboo cotton for the next 4 towels.
For the 3rd pair I used a simple V weave structure. The warp is 8/2 cotton, and red-purple yarn is thicker than that. The green-purple yarn is the same weight, but the lighter colors don’t show the weave pattern as well.
Last up was some Xs. I wasn’t at all sure about this, since I had used the draft once when I was doing baby wraps and wasn’t crazy about it, but in fact I really liked it for the towels. Again, the pattern shows up better with the darker color, but I really like the stripes on the yellow one.
Two of these towels will go to my friend, the rest into stock.
Now I wish I had more of that natural cotton. I can see something like that end-striped-towel in several colors, and by using a natural warp I can use up lots of odds and ends of nice hand painted yarn. The only downside is that the handpainted yarn (I didn’t dye it, I bought it) has a tendency to bleed in the wash. Could I wash all the yarn before I used it? I could, but I know myself well enough to know that I won’t. Anyhow, I don’t have much natural cotton left. Might pick up some at the Guild’s annual stash-reduction sale next month. We’ll see what people bring in.
On the needles, Friday night I finished a pair of socks I’d been working on. (Don’t tell me I don’t know how to have a good time on Friday night!) They look perfect with some of my favorite leggings.
Finally, Cindie over at Eweniquely Ewe inspired me. Yesterday I got all the rest of the pre-accountant work done for my taxes. Ugh. But it’s done – yay! Just waiting on a few things to arrive in the mail.
Now I’m off to the warping mill to start working on this month’s weaving goal.
Did you use 8/2 cotton for warp and weft on your towels?
They are beautiful!
8/2 cotton is my go-to for towels and what I used for these.
I really love your point twill towels. Thank you for posting the drafts. Are the tieups your own design or did you get them from somewhere like handweaving.net? I’d like to weave some of these myself and always like to credit the designer.
Gee, Roxie, I wish I could remember where I got those tie ups. It was years ago. I may have made them up, or I may have copied them from somewhere – the latter more likely, but don’t ask me where. I should keep track of that stuff.
How did you ever manage to get the stripes to even out on the socks?
The yellow towel is a show stopper!!
Thanks, Alma. I knit my socks toe up, so I simply do my best to start the yarn at a similar spot in the color run. This time I got REALLY close.
Such beautiful towels, all of them. I think my favs are the snowflake pair. How does the cotton bamboo ash up for towels? Those socks truly are perfect for the leggings!
Thanks, Theresa. I’ve not used the bamboo cotton for towels before (I’ve made mostly scarves from it), but it is not mercerized, and is a very soft 50/50 blend. Since I know they make bamboo towels, I’m pretty confident in it working well for towels.
I love the socks and the leggings both!