Project 1 – Four tea towels

I decided to create four tea towels that I could give away as gifts for Christmas (started at the end of November 2017 and finished just before Christmas 2017).  I used an amalgamation of ideas from the Ashford booklet “Learn to weave on the table loom” and “Weaving for the 4-shaft loom” by Anne Field.

For this project I used Ashford cotton tapestry loom warping thread for the warp threads and the plain sections of weft.  For pattern sections I used Ashford mercerised cotton Ne 5/2 colours Dazzling blue (46), Scuba blue (44), Chilli pepper (12) and Radiant orchid (56).  I threaded the loom using the weaving draft on page 118 of “A handweaver’s pattern book” by Marguerite Porter Davidson.  There were 192 warp threads, each 350cm long.  The sett is 5epcm.

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The header rows and the first tea towel

After removing the weaving from the loom, I hemmed each end of the towels using the sewing machine.  They were then washed in warm water.  The finished tea towels measured 55cm x 32cm.

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Fresh off the loom
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1st tea towel – pattern XIII and dazzling blue.  I gave this to Maria.
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1st tea towel
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2nd tea towel pattern VIII, scuba blue, 6 rows plain, dazzling blue.  I gave this to Mum & Dad.
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2nd tea towel
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3rd tea towel – pattern II, scuba blue, dazzling blue, scuba blue.  I gave this to Mum & Dad.
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3rd tea towel

Tea towel four was the same as tea towel two, except for the colour – it was chilli pepper and radiant orchid.  It was shorter than the others as I ran out of warp length.  I gave this to Emily.