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8-SHAFT PROJECT

M A R Y B E R E N T

Designing the ultimate dish towel: the full story D E S I G N I N G A D I S H TO W E L I S A W E AV E R ’ S FAV O R I T E TA S K — A C H A N C E TO MA R R Y CO LO R , S T R U C T U R E , A N D F I B E R F O R S O M E T H I N G B E AU T I F U L T H AT YO U U S E .

A towel needs to meet many criteria, such as absorbency, washability, and durability. The designing

and weaving process should be a pleasure, and the towel should look great in your kitchen. Ideally,

a towel should be machine washable and require no ironing so you won’t be inclined to “save” it.

Think about what you want your ultimate towel to do for you. By defining exactly what you want,

you can eliminate many options, narrowing and refining your choices.

YA R N S For an absorbent towel, cotton, linen, or cottolin are the best choices. Cotton comes in the most colors and is very economical. Linen (wet-spun line linen) is more durable, but creates a stiffer, less drapable towel. Very fine linen makes gorgeous heirloom towels for drying your best crystal but is not available in a full range of colors. For the towels you want to use every day, cotton is my first choice every time.

S T R U C T U R E From a practical standpoint, a towel should lay flat and have no “wrong” side. For a durable towel, any floats need to be short. To make elegant towels for drying fine china, huck and huck lace are time-tested structures. For a thicker, thirstier, everyday towel, waffle weave might be your choice.

The structure for this towel is turned taqueté—a sturdy interlacement requir-ing no floating selvedges and only one shuttle. Turned taqueté is warp dominant so provides drape with bulk.

C O L O R A N D D E S I G N Color is a huge part of the design

challenge for any handwoven textile. Because taqueté is warp dominant, the weft color in produces only a subtle effect—the design is created by two warp colorways. You can aim for bright and cheerful, bold and dramatic, soft and subtle—or other color effects. If you select complementary colors in the warp, choose a neutral weft color that will not dull either of the warp colors.

You don’t have to use exactly the same hue for all of the yarns in each colorway. Mixing yarns with subtle differences will add depth to either colorway. And because any such color variations are all in the warp, the weaving remains quick and easy with one shuttle.

Use this project as an opportunity to push the envelope of color combinations.

W E A V I N G N O T E S The actual designing and the challenges you set for yourself are one of the truly magical and most rewarding parts of weaving any project. So many elements are involved in design choices for a handweaver that a lifetime of weaving can only scratch the surface of the wonderful options available.

You are designing your work, you

might as well make it fun to weave! Plain weave is a very sturdy structure, but it doesn’t give you much to look at while you are weaving. The draft for these towels not only produces a design of sensuous curves and undulations in the final towel, you’ll also enjoy watching it develop pick by pick at the loom.

When I am weaving square or rectangular textiles, such as towels, runners, scarves, or shawls, I like to plan a border on all four sides of the piece. This is a subtle design element that is easy for weavers to create, and it shows that the textile was designed purpose-fully, distinguishing it from commer-cially produced fabrics.

Whatever choices you make during the design process, set high goals for interesting, colorful, beautiful, and unique textiles that will be a joy for you to weave and will be loved by those using them. The time you spend designing will be rewarded with textiles that reflect your love of weaving.

R E S O U R C E SInouye, Bonnie. “Two Patterns for Two

Scarves on One Warp.” Handwoven, January/February 2008, pp. 64-67.

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STRUCTURETurned taqueté.

EQUIPMENT8-shaft loom, 20" weaving width; 10-dent reed; 1 shuttle. (If you have a dobby loom, you can convert the WIF file available at weavingtoday .com to a peg plan for easier treadling; remem-ber to add the ground weft.)

YARNSWarp: 8/2 unmercerized cotton (3,200 yd/lb, Aurora Earth, Cotton Clouds). For natural tow-

els: Beige #15 and Natural #79, 1,600 yd each. For green towels: Dark Green #12 and Nile Green #5, 1,600 yd each .

Weft: 20/2 pearl cotton (8,400 yd/lb, Pearly Perle, Cotton Clouds). For natural towels: Desert Sand #150, 1,816 yd. For green tow-els: Scarab #53, 1,816 yd.

The yarns used for these towels are available as a kit or on cones from Cotton Clouds.

WARP LENGTH800 total ends (400 dark ends alternating

with 400 light ends) 4 yd long (allows 6" for take-up, 26" for loom waste). Add 30" to warp length for each addtional towel.

SET TSWarp: 40 epi (4/dent in a 10-dent reed). Weft: 25–26 ppi.

DIMENSIONSWidth in the reed: 20". Woven length (mea-sured under tension on the loom): 112" (28" per towel). Finished sizes after washing: four hemmed towels 171⁄2" × 23" each.

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dark warp (8/2 Beige or Dark Green)

ground weft

weft = (20/2 Desert Sand or Scarab) light warp (8/2 Natural or Nile Green)

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Always alternate a pattern pickwith a ground pick.

Numbers in the treadling indicate number of pattern picks using the same pattern treadle, alternating with a groundpick using treadle 9 or 10.

Wind a warp of 800 ends holding 1 dark end and 1 light end together, keeping them separate with a finger to prevent twisting. Warp the loom using your pre-ferred method for relatively dense warps (back to front with two crosses is recom-mended, though all methods will work, with care during beaming). Find complete warp-ing instructions for back to front with two crosses at weavingtoday.com (see How-To Instructions under Learning to Weave).

Spread the warp with scrap yarn using treadles 9 vs 10 (true plain weave is not possible on this threading). Begin and end each towel with 52 picks using the ground weft only, alternating treadles 9

and 10 for hems. Weave the body of each towel following the treadling in Figure 1. Always weave a ground pick before each pattern pick, alternating treadles 9 and 10. Weave 2 picks of scrap yarn to sepa-rate the towels.

Remove the fabric from the loom, cut the towels apart, and secure the raw edges with machine zigzagging. Sew hems by turning edges under ¼", then ½", and stitch by hand or machine.

Machine wash towels and hang to dry. (You can machine dry these towels, but they will maintain a better texture and last longer if they are air dried.)

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1. Draft for turned taqueté towels

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Towels using other colorways Project towels