Observations about weaving twill towels from Mardi:
After completing some relatively difficult projects and wrestling with adding 4 shafts, expanding my Ideal Glimakra loom to 8 shafts, I decided to try a set of “easy” twill towels. I browsed through 8-Shaft Patterns , edited by Carol Strickler and noticed that there were several variations of twills threaded in an 8 shaft straight draw and decided to explore the possibilities.
First I decided on color and design and got started. I chose turquoise with green stripes, sett at 18 EPI. The width in the reed was 22inches. I wove the towels to 33 inches plus allowance for hems.
Plain Weave is always a good place for me to start, just to see what the overall color effect is. The result was as expected. Then I tried #2, #13, 327 and #29. I discovered that not every pattern looks good on both sides. I also discovered that I hadn’t checked for floats. There were a few with 4 thread floats. I wasn’t sure that was going to be acceptable. When I took the towels off the loom I wasn’t happy at all and then remembered that it is really not possible to evaluate the results without wet finishing. They actually turned out satisfactorily.
 |
| Turquoise Towel |
 |
| Another Turquoise Towel |
After finishing the turquoise towels, I wanted to see if it would be possible to tie on a second set. One might think that is easy, but I had not tied the first warp onto the back beam. I had looped a rod through to attach the warp. I didn’t know how to tie on to slipping threads. It was suggested at a meeting (Thank you Jackie Hervey) that I try to stabilize the first warp by weaving a short section in front of the reed, allowing enough thread length to complete the tying process. It worked beautifully and a second set of yellow striped towels was secured. Due to the difference in yarn grist, I decided to re-sley to 20 EPI.
 |
| Yellow Towels with Tied-on Warp |
I decided to try #21, Brighton Honeycomb for the first towel. It gave a nice texture (with some really long floats). The finish was satisfactory. Doubting further experimentation, I wove off the 3 remaining towels in plain twill and was really quite pleased.
My final notes to self are as follows. First, I should sample. I should also use Fiberworks to check things like floats and back of fabric view. I also decided that while a straight draw “looks easy”, the patterns that can be achieved are somewhat limiting.
