This project was woven over several months, from the fall of 2020 to the spring of 2021. I based this design on a draft was called Shaded Twill from the Handweaver's Pattern Book, but I chose to make a border on either side using 10 ends of straight draw, then six repeats of the draft, then a modified symmetrical centre panel, then another six repeats, then the border twill again. Each towel has a different lift plan, ranging from straight twill, point twill, broken twill, to free style. The warp was threaded at 30 epi (and I aimed for 30 ppi), with a total of 552 ends including floating selveges. Each towel measured 34" by 18" on the loom, and shrunk to 26" by 16" after hemming and washing (1" used for hems on either end). Both warp and weft were 16/2 cotton from Brassard and Sons in Quebec (purchased from Penelope Fibre Arts). The colours used were Vieux Bleu, Cayenne, Sapin, and Naturel for the warp. Over the course of weaving this project, I noticed that my fell line was quite curved, leading to disproportionate warpwise shrinking at the selveges (and correspondingly, bulging out in the centre portion). I was able to address this by adding a lot more slack in my weft shofts, and by beating on an open shed (switching sheds when the beater was resting against the fell line). The two red towels, which were woven first, have the most issues with this. The blue towels have already been gifted, but the red and green are still waiting.
{Image description: A photograph of a stack of hand woven tea towels lying on a wooden laminate floor. The towels are turned back at the corner in a fan to show each layer and pattern, with each of the hems folded over and pinned in place waiting to be stitched down. The towels are green, blue, and orange-red, and are each woven in a different variation of point twill. On top of the towels are a spool of white thread, a container of needles, and a metal thimble.]
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