I recently stopped at a local artisan’s craft store in my town. It had a lot of nicely made craft items for sale, but I noticed that there was nothing handwoven. I spoke with the owner and she indicated an interest in carrying some of my hand-wovens so I decided to develop a stockpile of things to sell.
In addition to the aprons I recently made using some woven twill I thought I would weave some dish towels (always a popular item!). I settled on a four shaft summer and winter pattern which I located in Handwoven Magazine. Using various 8/2 cotton I had in my stash I wove five lovely towels in different colors.
I decided I really enjoyed weaving summer and winter so I found another pattern in Handwoven magazine which sported polka-dots! It looked like such fun that I eagerly warped my loom and started weaving. I loved the pattern on eight shafts but soon discovered shafts 1 and 2 were floating. Apparently this is common when tying up so many treadles to a given shaft that the shaft will “float” even when not pressed.
After doing some research I decided to add some weights to these two shafts. Using a kitchen scale, I filled four empty medicine jars with equal amounts of coins and attached these to the offending shafts. Voila! Problem solved.
The towels turned out nicely, I think!
References:
“Summer and Winter with a Twist Polka-Dot Towels,” by Linda Adamson, Handwoven, January/February 2015, pp. 46-48.
“Summer and Winter Kitchen Towels”, by Sarah Jackson, Handwoven, May/June 2016, pp. 38-40.
Loomcraft Weaver 