Rule of Three Towels

Do you like the towels, but purple’s not your color? Take a look at your yarn stash, pull half a dozen related colors that you like (plus a pop of something extra)—and then follow the Rule of Three as you warp.

About this Project

For as long as designer Christina Garton can remember, she has been a purple person. While organizing her yarn stash, she realized she had a plethora of purple 8/2 cottons in various tints, tones, and shades. This hoard inspired her to weave a set of rigid-heddle towels in purples, along with a bright pink for a pop of something extra. She envisioned a randomly striped warp, possibly making a gradient effect. Surely such a thing would be easy to do with direct warping! It took her less than an inch of warp to realize that aesthetically pleasing (and truly random) warps are not as easy to create as you might think. She eventually came up with what she calls the Rule of Three. The resulting warp had exactly the random but not chaotic look she was hoping for. She wove one towel in basketweave; for the other, she used that bright pink as weft along with a simple pick-up lace pattern, and the result was striking.

Contents

• Project Instructions PDF

Details

Structure
Basketweave and lace.

Equipment
Rigid-heddle loom, 16" weaving width; 12-dent heddle; 2 shuttles.

Yarns
Warp: 8/2 cotton (3,360 yd/lb; Maurice Brassard; Lunatic Fringe Yarns), #1410 Lavande, #1507 Lilas, #4273 Mauve foncé, #5120 Mauve pâle, #5067 Periwinkle, and #1330 Rose foncé, 147 yd each.
Note: Warp yardage will vary depending on how you choose to distribute each color throughout the warp.
Weft:
Towel 1: 8/2 cotton, #4273 Mauve foncé, 135 yd; #5120 Mauve pâle, 118 yd.
Towel 2: 8/2 cotton, #1330 Rose foncé, 18 yd. Beam 3/2 unmercerized cotton (100% organic cotton; 1,260 yd/lb; Gist Yarn), Hibiscus, 98 yd.

Dimensions
Width in the reed: 18".
Woven length: (measured under tension on the loom) 46".
Finished size: (after wet-finishing and hemming) Towel 1, 12¾" × 17"; Towel 2, 10¾" × 16¾".

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