Towels! Good ones!

Spoiler alert - here are my finished towels and I love them!

Now, the backstory... After buying a 25" Schacht Flip rigid heddle loom at MDSW last month, I was anxious to warp up a towel project and put the loom through its paces. And so I did. It was slow going at first (May is an overscheduled month in our family calendar), but gradually I figured it out.

The first bit of work was mental. I didn't have a pattern to follow and I wanted to use stash yarn, so I worked out warp and weft calculations from scratch. I wanted to make towels that measured 17.5 x 25" finished, as those are the size of the kitchen towels we love and use all the time. I added 10% for shrinkage and another 10% for take-up, an inch at each end for a turned hem, and extra length for loom waste. I knew exactly how much yarn I needed for one towel. The main thing I didn't know was how much yarn I had and whether it was enough.

I know how to figure out how much knitting yarn is in a partial ball, but I let the cardboard cone on weaving yarn scare me away from my usual math. The weavers in my knitting group say the cone weight is negligible and I could have proceeded as usual. I have yarn left over, so I could have made more than two towels... but when I was warping, I wasn't sure, so I only put on enough warp for two towels.

I used the direct warping method with the peg. This is 8/2 cotton, double-stranded on a 10-dent heddle. The warp length is 2.3 yards, and the width in the reed is 21". It took me a while to thread all those slots and holes! One advantage of working double strands is that you don't have to re-thread some of the slot threads into holds later - you just do it right on the first pass.

You can see that I went to some effort to make wide stripes in the warp. I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to handle the weft, though, besides working the 1" hem ends in a single strand (for less bulk when folding under and stitching down). I made a guide out of a strip of paper. This was wound onto the fabric beam along with the fabric (with occasional pins) and let me know when to pay attention and do something different.

I ended up making the first towel with all white weft. It was nice to do something simple on the first piece, and really get the hang of weaving at this wider width. A 25" long stick shuttle is a big piece of wood to wave about.

For the second towel, I planned a striping pattern that sort of mimics what's happening in the warp. I used my guide to measure out distances and mark where to use which color. I am completely sold on using a guide like this. Another genius tip from Liz Gipson.

I also ordered a couple more 25" shuttles so that I could have one for each color. I used a hemstitch at both ends (a stitch that is done on the loom) so I could cut the warp threads pretty close in after wet finishing and before hemming by hand.

Did things go as planned? Mostly. My finished towels are not quite the same size. They are both 18 1/8" wide (I was aiming for 17.5"). One is 25 3/8" long, and the other is 25 7/8" long (I was aiming for 25"). I'm not sure how that 1/2" different crept in there because I used the guide, but it did. I might adjust my plans for next time.

My warp was ALMOST too short. In retrospect, I think the Flip needs a bit more loom waste than the Cricket does, because of the distance between the back apron rod in extended position and the down shed (this distance is 8-9" and it can be almost nothing on the Cricket). I only planned for 18" loom waste but I'll increase that next time.

I think my edges look mighty nice, if I do say so myself. 

I found one float on my finished towel that I didn't notice earlier, It's hardly noticeable and I certainly don't mind. Can you even see it? The float is light green:

Overall, I am thrilled with these towels. This is exactly what I envisioned making when I got the Cricket a few years ago. Finally my knowledge and skills have advanced enough to make what my mind's eye saw. I can't wait to plan the next set... which will be FOUR towels, not two!