Skullery Towels

Margery Erickson enjoys designing and weaving various border motifs inspired by a sheep pattern from a past issue of Handwoven. After seeing her woven pumpkins, candles, rabbits, and jack-o’-lanterns, a friend asked if she could weave skulls as well—they are a favorite of her daughter. Considering that skulls can be found on everything from T-shirts and jewelry to tattoos, jackets, and socks, she’s not the only one who likes them.

She also likes to combine her love of weaving figures with her love of hand-dyeing yarns. These towels were samples woven using one of her hand-dyed warps—you can see the color shading and variation in the finished towels.

Enjoy this subscriber bonus project from Handwoven Fall 2024.

STRUCTURE
Plain weave with summer and winter.

EQUIPMENT
8-shaft loom, 21" weaving width; 10-dent reed; 3 shuttles; 4 bobbins.

YARNS
Warp: 8/2 cotton (3,360 yd/lb; Valley Yarns; WEBS), #8176 Natural, hand-dyed, 1,117 yd. Note: The warp for the towel shown was dyed using Dharma Fiber Reactive Dye #31 Dark Green. If you prefer to use a commercially dyed solid warp, Margery suggests choosing darker shades of the Valley Yarns 8/2 cotton, such as #2625 Ink Blue, #5949 Black Forest, or #6995 Purple.
Weft: Plain weave: 8/2 cotton, #8540 Shale, 584 yd. Pattern: 5/2 pearl cotton (2,100 yd/lb; Valley Yarns; WEBS), #8001 White, 70 yd; #8990 Black, 16 yd. Tabby: 10/2 pearl cotton (4,200 yd/lb; Valley Yarns; WEBS), #8990 Black, 92 yd.
Note: Margery used 10/2 unmercerized cotton from her stash when she wove these towels, but she suggests the Valley Yarns 10/2 pearl cotton listed here as a good substitute.

WARP LENGTH
406 ends 2¾ yd long (includes floating selvedges; allows 7" for take-up, 26" for loom waste).

SETTS
Warp: 20 epi (2/dent in a 10-dent reed).
Weft: 18 ppi in the plain-weave areas; about 20 ppi in the border motifs.

DIMENSIONS
Width in the reed: 20 ⁴⁄₁₀".
Woven length: (measured under tension on the loom) 66".
Finished size: (after wet-finishing and hemming) two towels, 18" × 27" each.