Cotton Dish Towels

In December I wove some 100% cotton dish towels on my 15″ loom. Everyone can use a new dish towel, so I thought they would make nice gifts. And I can always use more myself whether they turn out perfectly or not.

I started researching patterns and yarns, finding many options. I learned that cotton yarn can be “mercerized” or “unmercerized”. The mercerized cotton is treated so it is smoother and holds dye better, but unmercerized will absorb more moisture. For my first attempt I decided to use the same inexpensive Peaches & Creme unmercerized cotton yarn I have used to knit dish cloths. There is thinner, more expensive, cotton yarn with more threads per inch, but I wanted to try the concept first with the cheaper yarn.

I used a pattern called “Classic Woven Dishtowels” from Purl Soho. It was a basic design using one main color with some horizontal stripes in a contrast color.

After deciding on white for the main color, with blue for accent stripes, I “warped” the loom with enough yarn for the towels plus waste at the beginning and end. I forgot to take a photo while the entire 155″ warp length was stretched out across the living room. The photo below was taken after tying the warp yarns to the “front beam” of the loom, and winding most of the 155″ on to the “back beam”.

Once the loom was all warped, I was ready to begin weaving. The weaving process is repetitive but calming. I can listen to music or an audio book while working, or just enjoy the quiet.

The pattern suggested cutting the warp yarn after each towel and retying the remaining warp threads to the front beam. It said that this was better for maintaining an even tension for the remaining towels. The other option is to keep weaving all four towels, cutting and separating the individual towels later.

Since I was just learning, I went ahead and cut the first towel off as the pattern suggested. Before cutting, in order to keep the ends from coming undone during washing, and for a finished edge, I attempted to make a “hem stitch” on each end.

I had trouble with the hem stitch on both ends. It was too loose and had too many warp threads in each group. I took the stitches out and sewed the hem stitch over again, after I had already cut the fringe to 1″, so the threads were flopping all over.

When I got part way through the second towel I started to have a problem with the tension along one side. The last two warp threads on one side got too tight. Towards the end of the towel I was tugging, and ended up cutting those two warp yarns to release the pressure so I could continue working.

In between towel two and three, in order to fix the tension problem, I cut the warp threads and then unwound the warp yarn off the back beam. I took the two offending warp threads off entirely so the weaving was not so close to the edge of the loom, and re “warped” the rest.

Towel number three looked good on the edges, and the hem stitching was successful! Yay! There was supposed to be enough warp yarn for 4 towels, but there was only about ten inches left after the third towel…so it ended up as waste.

After washing and drying, the towels shrank some as expected, and they are soft and thirsty. The second towel with the tension problem looks OK for my personal use. They work well for drying wet hands when working in the kitchen, drying dishes that have been washed by hand, and mopping up those annoying pools of water that collect on items after the dishwasher has been run.

Following are photos of the three completed towels. I am pleased with the results, despite their imperfections.

I don’t usually hang three towels on the oven door handle at the same time, but I like the Scandinavian look in the next photo, which matches the colors in my kitchen. The towel on the right is one of the towels I just wove, and the towel on the left was designed and sold by my friend Cindy Lindgren.

Cindy Lindgren is a graphic designer in Minneapolis, a close friend of my sister-in-law. She sells cards, puzzles, prints and posters, stickers, magnets, and textiles with her unique designs including themes of Twin Cities, Paul Bunyan, Texas, Scandinavian, Frank Lloyd Wright, Christmas and others. Cindy designed the St. Paul Winter Carnival button for 2019, and more importantly, my business card and blog logos. Check out her products on ETSY https://www.etsy.com/shop/CindyLindgren?ref=shop_sugg

Following is a photo of Cindy’s towel next to my own hand woven towel.