Twill Exploration

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.