I finally have the “May Towel of the Month on the loom after a couple of false starts.  I made the choice to use 2/8 cotton in natural colour for the body of the towel, and a very pretty cable yarn in cotton and rayon for the accent.  The cable yarn has a thick and thin aspect, with the main part of the yarn about the size of 2\8 cotton, and some nubby parts a bit larger.  So, I went ahead and measured out the warp and proceeded to put it on the loom.  I had to pull the nubby bits by hand through the reed dents, and had no problems in the heddles, but obviously I was in denial about the fit and believed that once the yarn was taut the nubbies would just slide through the reed.

Big mistake.  Big, big mistake.  I had everything tied on perfectly, tightened the warp and started to weave.  The beater would not move.  I niggled the yarn by hand through each reed space.  The beater made it to the fell, the nubby yarn stretched and relaxed.  Now I couldn’t move the beater back to make the next shed.  I thought, “Will this improve with time?”  I tried a few more careful, tedious picks.  Better?  Not even in the slightest!

So, with a heavy sigh, I cut out the offending threads and replaced the accent threads with 2/8 cotton in dark green.  At least I know they will go through the reed OK.  And, I started weaving again.  Now, I realized that when I threaded the nubby yarn, I put each one in a separate dent, so as not to let them tangle with the cotton.  Now the nubby was replaced with cotton, the extra space was noticeable.  Again, I cut out the weaving and re-slayed the whole warp to close up the gaps.  Now I am ready to get back to the weaving.  Third time’s a charm I hope.

Let the weaving begin.

And a note on the “turned” Atwater-Bronson Lace.  In Atwater-Bronson the weaving will have warp floats on one face of the cloth and weft floats on the other face.  When this is turned, both faces will have both warp floats and weft floats.