Towels with Hand Dyed Linen Yarn

I brought my rigid heddle loom with me to Arizona, along with yarn for several weaving and knitting projects. I always think I am going to get more done than is realistic, but better to be prepared with extra supplies than not enough.

I have been looking forward to using the 100% linen yarn that I hand dyed at Fiber Day. After I finished the tablet weaving shoelace project (link to blog post here), my loom was freed up and I was ready to weave some hand towels using the linen with two other yarns.

I dyed commercially purchased linen yarn two different times at Fiber Day at the Ellison’s sheep farm in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. They have all the supplies there and people who know what to do. I published a blog post about it the first time that you can read here. The next photo shows jars of yellow, red, and purple dye with the linen yarn from the second time.

I used my swift and ball winder at home to make a ball out of the red linen yarn to bring to Arizona.

Following is a photo of most of the yarn I assembled to bring to Arizona for weaving towels. The tubes of off white and blue yarn are 100% 8/4 cotton. The rest is the hand dyed 100% linen in several colors.

The linen is harder to work with than cotton because it has no elasticity. It is recommended to use for weft only. It is stiff but softens up after being washed. I made a small sample of plain weave with the natural color cotton warp and red linen weft, to see how I would like the feel and the interaction of the colors.

With the tiny sample loom I have a hard time packing the weft rows so they are not too tight or too loose, and not either drawing in too much on the sides or not enough. As expected it shrunk and tightened up after washing. It felt nice, but I thought maybe it needed some vertical stripes.

The red linen was not good for warp stripes, but I had some Gist Duet cotton/linen blend yarn in a different shade of red. In order to figure out if the colors worked OK together, I made another sample using some of the Duet yarn in the warp. The Duet has some elasticity due having cotton blended with linen. I used it for vertical stripes placed evenly throughout the warp, but not on the edges. I only put in enough rows in the sample to get an idea what it would look like, so it is quite small. The weft yarn is too loose on the sides, but I did not try very hard to get it right as I just wanted to see how to colors worked together.

My very small sample was 3 1/2″ by 1 1/2″ before washing. I did not have any laundry to wash the sample with, so I just swished it in some hot soapy water, dried it with a towel and a blow dryer. After washing and drying it was even smaller, but it was enough to know that I could use this combination of yarns for my towel project.

I reserved a common room in the community building at our RV Resort, so I would have enough space for warping the towels project. My sister-in-law Marlene, and our friend Jane, worked on painting projects while I worked on warping my loom. Following is a photo of the yarn for my project, in front of the beginning of Marlene’s painting. Marlene is a good artist. I am comfortable with knitting and weaving, but not painting. How do you know when a painting is done? The painting in the photo below could be done if you wanted an abstract look, but it was only the beginning done in water color. Marlene had brought pastels to add to the painting.

In the following photo, Marlene is working on her painting using a photo as a guide, but making it her own.

Jane started out working on a watercolor painting, but gave up and instead worked on a crochet hair tie.

Following is me warping my rigid heddle loom with the natural cotton and red Duet cotton/linen blend.

I am pretty comfortable using my rigid heddle loom, having learned from my weaving mentor in Fergus Falls, Torri Hanna. There are many online sources of instruction, patterns, and tips for improving your weaving results. Before working on this current project, I watched a 12 lesson School of Sweet Georgia class called Rigid Heddle Weaving Basics. I was not sure if I would learn anything new, but I did and am very glad I watched the class.

After the project was warped on the loom, I could work on the weaving part back in our RV. I used the red linen for every weft row.

I had been stressing about the different shades of red yarn for this project. It ended up looking good, partly because the red linen has periodic bits of natural and lighter red where the skein of yarn was tied together during the dying process.

The sections of red linen weft yarn with variations of color, or lack of color, are evident in the following photo.

There was not enough of the red linen yarn to make the second towel the same (so I thought), so I decided to go with weft stripes of natural cotton alternating with the red linen. After about 12 inches of weaving the second towel, I could see the end of the warp. WHAT? I thought I measured out enough warp yarn for two 28″ towels. After reviewing my notes I realized that I calculated the total warp length needed for only one towel.

Following is a photo of both towels after removing them from the loom, but before washing.

I was concerned about the red from my hand dyed yarn bleeding all over my laundry if I washed it with a regular load, like I usually do. I rinsed the two towels out in the sink with some hot water and soap first, which did result in red dye rinsing out. After I did not see any more red in the water, I washed and dried them in the washing machine and dryer. It looks a bit like some of the red dye changed the color of the off white to a slight pink color on the towel with vertical stripes, but it might be just the way the colors interact together.

After weaving in ends, washing, drying and ironing, the towels looked and felt nice. I like the texture. I like the plaid pattern better, so bummer it is so small. It will have to be a napkin or fingertip towel.

People compliment me on my knitting and weaving skill, and ability to work on very detailed projects. However there was a time when I was knitting garter stitch scarves just like all beginning knitters. And I was very intimidated by weaving before I actually tried it. It has taken a long time to progress gradually to where I am now, and there are many people who are much more advanced in their skill in spinning, knitting, and weaving. If you want to learn these crafts, please do not give up. You can do it! On the other hand, it is a good thing that there are people who can paint or do other activities that are not in my skill set. We need what everyone has to offer. Marlene’s painting of the Superstition Mountains near our RV Resort turned out beautifully! I am going to get a print of it for our house.

And lastly is a close up photo of the completed woven towels. I am going to make another set with the blue, yellow and white cotton and hand dyed linen yarns. I will make sure to measure the warp length correctly!