New Kitchen Towels

Here are the latest kitchen towels in the weaving process.  Not my fastest set of towels but surely one of my favorite patterns.  I love color & weave.  The color repeat pattern in the warp is the same as the color repeat pattern in the weft so when one color of the warp crosses the same color of the weft, there is a bold dot of that color.  In all the other areas different colors cross each other for more muted color.  Changing colors every eight picks does take more time but the final result is well worth it.

This is a portion of the 12 yards of kitchen towel right off the loom.  I zigzag both ends and wash and dry the entire long fabric.  Then the fabric is cut into sections of about 36 inches in length and all those ends zigzagged....

Once the towels are secure from fraying, they are washed a second time.  In this case they are washed in warm water and dried in the dryer.  Then the hems are pressed and hand sewed...

Twelve new towels, already pressed, waiting to be hemmed.  I was told early on by a fabulous weaver that hand woven items always needed to be hemmed by hand.   I resisted the idea initially.  I didn't actually machine hem my first towels but I certainly thought about it.  Now that I've gotten used to hand hemming, I have got to agree.  Thank you Connie Elliott.  You were correct.  Lovingly hand woven kitchen towels should be lovingly hand hemmed.  So that's were I sit right now.  I've finished hemming the first towel and the others are sitting next to my chair ready to go.