The Calcutta towel makes another appearance

Five years ago, Sue started on a journey to recreate a favorite pile towel from her childhood in Calcutta.  The whole family had the towels in different colors; they were bright and had pile weaves on both sides.  Sue really wanted to figure out how to weave them herself.  The first post about these towels appears here. 

Recently Sue dug out her draft and started weaving more of these towels.  No pile, you understand, but with the basic structure that you can see in the ends of the original towel.  The towels have a label that says they were woven in Calcutta - the pile suggests a factory weave.  We joked that maybe Sue should return to see if she could find the factory to see how they manage the pile.  Would the factory still be there we wondered.

Sue thinks that the original towel has alternating colors in the warp - which would be fun to try. 



I know you are dying to see the draft that Sue figured out.  Hours went into this relatively simple draft, but I'm not sure I've seen it elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

Here are the towels recently woven by Sue in colorful cottons to help her remember childhood memories in Calcutta.

 



Fabric Analysis of a Handwoven Towel

As a child, Sue spent several years in India.  While she was there, the family bought some handwoven towels (made in Calcutta).  Each one was a different color and they used them for beach towels.  Sue still has her towel, and despite a little wear and tear, it is still functional.  She set out to analyze the weave structure so that she could recreate something similar on her four shaft loom.  The towel has pile, so she isn't going to attempt that on the first trial but says maybe that will come later.

Here is Sue's thread by thread analysis.

It will be great to see how she does with the re-creation and I'll be sure to add it on to this post when it is completed.

April 17 Addition to the towel story.  Here is the first sampling that Sue has woven from her analysis of the towel from Calcutta.

I think that this is an accurate draft for the towel.  I have interpreted it in two blocks and separated the blocks with color changes.