Striped Star Towels

I did a couple of posts when I began these towels ages ago, and I actually finished the weaving and cut them off the loom in mid-August, but I finally got around to taking some photos of the finished product, so you can see them in all their adorableness.

As I have mentioned, they were woven in the cotton-linen blend that I still have too much of, in a 1/3 and 3/1 twill weave. If you look in the large white spaces between the stripes, you can see the classic diagonal lines of twill. 3/1 twill, incidentally, is the weave used for denim jeans, so even if you didn't realize it, you are very familiar with it.


The warp made four towels in total, but I gave one away, so there are only three in the photo. I am already planning another set, but this time with allover stars, in violet and undyed yarn. Finishing those might get my cotton linen stash down to a more reasonable amount...

Seeing Stars

Anyone who read yesterday's post might be wondering what I had up my sleeve with these towels. I have one word for you: stars!


If you look at the spot where the vertical purple stripes meet the horizontal purple stripes, you will see little four-pointed stars. Cool, huh.

Over halfway done weaving the first towel (and still enchanted by the way the stars appear, bit by bit, as I weave the purple rows.)

Weaving as Therapy

I got the worst cold this week -- it started with a sore throat and then I lost my voice, and got stuffed up, and now I'm in the coughing and dripping stage. Fortunately I've also had a few days off work, so I got to lay around a bit and feel sorry for myself, instead of having to pull it together and go out in public.


The same day that I came down with a cold, I started to sley the reed for a new weaving project. There have been lots of little hiccups along the way on this one: first I realized that I was two ends short, while I was threading the heddles, so I had to add two in and move everything over. Then I started winding on the warp and snapped two warp threads, so I had to redo those two and wind the warp again. I did, and then realized I had one more snapped, so had to undo it and redo it yet again. Fortunately I had time on my hands, so I could walk away when I got frustrated (often) and come back later when I felt calmer.

Since I have tons of the Cotton Linen blend from Valley yarns (that I used to make the Sunshine Plaid towels and my Wobbly Herringbone facecloths) I am making more towels. This is a set of four towels in undyed cotton/linen, with magenta stripes, and will follow it up with two or three more in a different design, in natural and violet.

The weaving doesn't look too impressive yet, I admit. Ignore the orange bit at the bottom - that's just the header, not part of the towels. Above that is the hem, in two parts, and then the towel itself. So far just stripes, right? You just wait and see.