A Second 'De-stash' Project

DE-STASH TEA TOWELS

  Well, this is an item I thought I'd never weave!

                While sorting through the boxes and shelves with yarn that was acquired many years ago, I came across cones of cotton and linen in a variety of quantity and colours.

I thought, as I am unable to wear anything woollen, something to wear in the summer would be great.

                Sampling, dare I admit it, has never been my thing, but I have always been intrigued by peoples enthusiasm for weaving T towels. So I decided to combine the two. I needed to know how much shrinkage etc if I was to weave a length of cotton fabric for summer wear and why not make samples that could be used!!!!

              I decided that fabric 20 x 30 inches would make an adequate tea towel and designed a warp 23 inches wide, 5 yards long for 4 towels. A wrap told me that I would need 20 warp threads an inch using the 2/20 thickness. Fortunately, I have that weight of yarn in a few colours. No white or cream so I decided that the silver/dove grey would be my main warp colour. A little boring on its own I decided to have purple vertical stripes. All tabby weave would also be monotonous, so I chose to add sections of  'Swedish lace'. It took some time to design the warp to include 7 lace sections across the width and I planned tabby sections at each side in case my selvedges weren't good enough!!!!! As it happened it was relatively easy to weave straight, neat selvedges and I soon got into a rhythm weaving.

            

 

Back and front of the Swedish lace pattern.

               I completed the warp and setting up the loom in one day. After two days weaving I ended up with 5 tea towels. Each one with a different colourway using purple, blue and green along with the pale grey. I intended to use mainly grey and keep the colours for another project but.... unless I would be prepared to wear a 'multicoloured dream coat' I hadn't enough of the colours.

               Some of the cottons are particularly shiny so I think they must be mercerised - no good for an absorbent tea towel, but probably great for 'stain free' clothing fabric.

               A few cones were thinner yarn - 50 wraps to the inch - perhaps they would make a great dress or summer top fabric in a twill based weave.

WET FINISHING HAND-WOVENS

             FABRIC WOVEN & OFF THE LOOM !

 This is the most nerve racking part of the process. After taking the time to warp your loom, weaving the fabric, cut it from the loom, make any 'repairs', and all has gone well, the next step could ruin it all!!!! Put it down to experience ????? A hard lesson!!!!! Not much comfort there!

WASHING

               No matter how many times I wet finish fabric in my washing machine I  feel nervous. Especially if I've not used that particular yarn before. Hey ho! In it goes, gently folding it into the drum with plenty of air, no compaction. 

               This piece was washed on the 30 deg. wool programme and I used wool scouring detergent and a little conditioner.

                So, it's out of the machine, nothing dreadful has happened to it and examination tells me the fabric is 'fulled' just right without felting!  :-))

DRYING

              I use a length of thick cardboard carpet roll with holes drilled all around it.
Attached to this with heavy duty carpet tape is a length of old sheeting which goes round the roll one and a half to two times. The sheeting is approximately 4" wider than the widest width I can weave. It is attached carefully at right angles to the end of the tube. There are no turnings on any edge of the fabric!

       I believe I may have used some curtain lining fabric for this one. The edges are not cut but torn.

      The lining fabric has been taped to the roller at right angles to the edge.

         When you take your fabric out of the machine, bowl or bath, depending which method you have chosen the fabric will be crinkled. To take these out and get a flat length to put on the roller work your way down the length in the following manner:- Stretching diagonally, left to right, right to left from one end to the other and again from the opposite end. This will flatten you fabric and square up the horizontal weft leaving it at right angles to the warp.

I seem to remember that, at college, a friend and I gathered one end of the fabric length each into both hands and pulled back and forth, between each other, to 'square up' the weave. then we moved on to the drying roller.

       The next step is to put the damp fabric onto the roller.

  

       Put the roller on a flat surface - I usually use my ironing board - with the cotton fabric completely around the roller with the extra length pointing towards you.

Tuck the end of your fabric up to the roller and parallel with it.

With the flat of your hands smooth the fabric width-wise and diagonally keeping the checks square, deep colour stripes vertical and horizontal. When satisfied with the first section roll the roller forward with the fabric wrapped around it. Continue in this way until your fabric is wound onto the roller. You will find that the width of the wet cloth increases slightly.

                                             

                

 (I'm not sure why these pictures are loading portrait because they were saved landscape. Hopefully you can see what is intended. I may be able to right the problem at a later time. (fingers crossed))

         Once all the fabric is on the roller it is hung up to dry. In my case in the utility room, from 'laundry hooks' on the top of two cupboard doors.

           After two days I took it down and rolled the fabric again from the opposite end. This speeds up the drying time.

             Now the big decision........ What shall I make with it?