Sunday, March 04, 2007

Huck Dish Towels Finished

I've spent this afternoon finishing up my second set of huck weave dish towels. (Kathy, these are all from The Best of Weaver's Huck Lace, so I think you'll be pleased with the book :) If you mouse-over the photos, you'll find out which weaves I used from the book.)

Lacy huck border, page 6, treadling E.
Huck boxes with 2 color weft, page 7, treadling F.All of your comments on measuring weaving length were much appreciated. Quite a few of you use cash register tape, which seems a very nifty trick. This time though, I decided to use Charleen's method of knotted string, though I did adapt it a bit.

Experimenting with a knotted measuring string.I secured one end of the string with a t-pin, and passed it under a few warp ends every time I advanced the warp. When I got to my knot, I threw a few shots of plain weave and started all over again. Happily, the lengths of my towels are quite consistent. A happy improvement from the first set.

Lattice huck, page 8, treadling J.What wasn't consistent, was the shrinkage after washing and drying them. The yellow weft did not seem to shrink as much as the green warp. It is most noticable in the detail below, which looks a bit sloppy.

More huck boxes, yellow (non-shrinking) weft only, pg. 7, treadling F.Of course, this means that the weft wasn't cotton, as I'd thought! I admit that I have a lot of mill ends and odd cones, some of which aren't labeled. Even so I thought I knew the fiber content of most of what I have. Obviously I don't. My guess is that the yellow is rayon. I've not heard of anyone using rayon for dishtowels before, so I'm not sure how well it will work with the cotton. Any guesses????? I'll have to let you know!!!

Ah well. Live and learn.

© 2007 Leigh's Fiber Journal

3 comments:

Charleen said...

The towels are beautiful. Thanks for noting the references for each picture.

I like your measuring string idea too. You can't have enough tricks up your sleeve!

Kathy said...

Thanks for the info, Leigh! These are, indeed, beautiful. Let us know how the rayon does as toweling...it's cellulose like cotton, so maybe you've lucked upon a new fad. :)

Sharon said...

I'm also of the school of live and learn, only I seem to live better than I learn. My towel/placemat weaving experiences have left a lot of space for learning.