Towels For Heather

As a gift for my daughter, in celebration of a remodeled kitchen, I wove towels inspired by a picture she found on Design-Seeds.com.  The picture is produce baskets with multicolored cherries.  The colors below were the ones I was supposed to use, but I couldn't not add the yellow from the picture, so there is very little in the warp - but it's there.

These are woven with 10/2 perle cotton; 24 epi; threaded as a point twill; and woven with a 2-2-1-1-1 twill.  The wefts used were the blues, flaxon (off-white), orange and yellow, woven in various point twills.

These turned out looking fun.  Heather only got a couple - the rest were sold, so I need to weave some more.  Maybe with more yellow this time.

orange weft

blue weft

flaxon weft

yellow weft

 

Postcard Towels

I realized it has been quite a while since I last posted.  I have been busy weaving, just not taking many pictures.  I've woven this set of towels three times.  I really love the colors and the way they look together.  Many of my friends have agreed - hence the three warps.  This is a postcard I got in San Francisco.  It is very Art Deco and the colors are very bright. 

 

Original Inspiration

Color Choices

 

These towels were woven using 10/2 perle cotton sett at 24 epi.  For at least two of the three warps, I threaded them in an "M & W" twill pattern. All were woven using the 2-2-1-1-1 twill.   

I thought I had added pictures of how I use paper towel rolls and Ziploc(R) bags to bring the warp to the loom in a previous post, but I couldn't find it when trying to describe this process to a friend.  So here is a short explanation and a couple of pictures. 

Ready to dress the loom

 

Winding warp on tubes

 
 
 
 












 









I know that many people will chain the warp, but I have found that it tangles the warp.  Even though this is mercerized cotton, it still can be a bit sticky.  Basically, I wind the warp around the empty paper towel tube - in this case after about three inches.  The rolls are then placed in the Ziploc(R) two-gallon bag with most of the seal closed but the warp coming out of the top. I dress the loom back to front, so the warp ends are brought to the back of the loom and slid onto the stick attached to the warp beam.   As the warp is wound around the warp beam, it "unrolls" from within the bags.  It's not absolutely perfect and there are some tangles, but it works fairly well. 

The towels were woven in what ever pattern called to me at the moment - straight diamond; M & W; irregular point; etc.   

I think the towel woven with the melon and burnt orange wefts are my favorites.  But the hummingbird - smoky purple looks really nice as well.  The yellow and blue wefts make very vibrant cloth, but I think they all turned out very well.


Teal weft

Melon weft

Hummingbird weft

Burnt orange weft

Yellow weft