These tea towels came off the loom just in time for Christmas Gift Giving. 

The towels are a combination of twill and basket weave inspired by JST Online Guild Episode 4.7.

I pulled out all my partial spools of blue 2/8 cotton – pale blue, chambray, cobalt, royal, periwinkle, and marine blue.  These went into the warp in different twill threadings.  Then I used black 2/8 cotton to form the separating stripes, threaded as basket weave.

I wove the towels using different colours and different twill treadling ideas.

One towel was woven using only basket weave treadling.

Changing colours, I used up more partial spools. This one has light purple as weft.

The last one I wove, using the colours and threadings “as-drawn-in”, or “trop as writ”, where the weft colours and twill patterns follow the order of the warp threading.

My warp was six yards long, and 21 inches wide in the reed.  I wove five different towels, approximately 33 inches long each, and a small sample.

These towels were a delight to weave.  My frugal self enjoyed the opportunity to use up odd bits of yarn, and the project provided an ever-changing “loom landscape” with shifting patterns and colour changes.  I was pushed to weave just a few more rows each time I sat down at the loom.