Emergency Waffle Weave Hand Towels (2023)

August 15, 2023 - No Comments

Pattern: A 4 shaft waffle pattern
Yarns:

  • Warp: 524 ends, including floating selvedges — 6yds
    • Valley Cotton 8/2 unmercerized, in various colours
    • Brassard 8/2 unmercerized cotton (“old jeans”)
  • Weft: Various, from warp yarns and other Valley Cotton 8/2 unmercerized colours

Sett: 24epi

Method: Weaving — multishaft floor loom.

Completed: August 15, 2023.

These were “emergency” hand towels only insofar as my old ones had worn through with large holes! I did a pretty standard waffle weave, with some playing around with weft colours on ridges and in valleys. One of the challenges was that the warp threads themselves came out to very different lengths — possibly I stretched them differently as I wound them? See photos to understand the challenge.

Dimensions on the loom:

  • 21.83” wide by 41” (38” plus 2×1.5” hem; the numbers shown below are for the whole towel and hem together))

Dimensions after weaving:

  • First towel (solid rust weft):
    • Just off the loom: 19.25” x 39.125”
    • After wet finishing: 16” x 30.5”
  • Second towel (solid peach weft):
    • Just off the loom: 19.5” x 39”
    • After wet finishing: 15.75” x 30.5”
  • Third towel (light & dark blue weft):
    • Just off the loom: 19.25” x 39.25”
    • After wet finishing: 16.5” x 31”
  • Fourth towel (turquoise and dark blue weft):
    • Just off the loom: 19.375” x 39”
    • After wet finishing: 16” x 30.25”

So — approximately 25% dimensional loss in length and in width (between on-loom numbers and wet finished).

Four finished towels – with some of the yarns used
Four towels and a sample
Finished towels
Finished towels
Adding a view of the back side of the towels
Front and back — towels woven with stripes in the weft, aligning with ridges and valleys
Front and back — closeup
Front and back — note how the ridge and valley colours differ (where did yellow go?!)
Front and back — very different colours
Wildly varying warp end lengths
Far end of the warp — some unevenness, but nothing like the beginning
Sampler, exploring colour choices
Closeup of sampler underway
Sampler wet finished
Sampler front and back
Sampler — wet finished, as compared to width of warp on the loom
Ridges in light blue, valleys in dark
Weft stripe action
Positioning weft stripes
Dark ridges, aqua valleys
Aqua and dark focus for the stripe
Stripe closeup — reminder for coming back later 🙂
When your warp gets close to the end….
Using a stick to clear the shed before throwing the shuttle
Four towel warp
Towel one
Towel two
Towel three — valley and ridge striping
Towel four — valley and ridge striping
After wet finishing (compared to trimmed end)
After wet finishing, compared to wet finished sampler
Inspector…
Inspector helps with the measuring
Suspect my measurements are off…
Handy warp winding and threading guide

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