Helpful links

Kelly Cassanova on YouTube:
Better tension when weaving with finer threads like 8/2 cotton:
https://youtu.be/YERj4AdWe20

Project in a nutshell

Yarn: 8/2 cotton. Choose 3 colors: a dark (neutral or not), a light (neutral or not), and a medium or bright.
I chose black, Sierra, and rust.

Loom: Ashford Rigid Heddle loom, 24” wide

Heddle: 10 dpi

Warp length: 104” for 3 large napkins. Using direct method with warping peg.

Woven length off loom: 79 1/2”

Length after 1 hot wash and dry:
72” (2 yds)
Napkin 1/small towel: 23”.
Napkin 2: 21 1/2”
Napkin 3/Towel: 27 1/2”.

Width in heddle: 24”.
Width off loom: 21.375”.
Width after 1 hot wash: 19.5”.

The fabric: A hot wash made the fabric cohere beautifully. I am looking forward to weaving more towels and napkins on the 10dpi heddle with this cotton thread, Lord willing.

The hemmed napkin after its second wash (warm water) is 16 1/2” square, hemmed. So the fabric would have been 18 1/2” before hemming.
24 - 18.5 = 5.5” shrinkage. 23% shrinkage.

Heddle Specs

My 10 dpi heddle has 20 slots and holes per section and 6 sections, for a total of 119 slots and 120 holes. Fully loaded, that would be 239 ends. Doubled, it would be 240+238= 478 ends max.

Threading pattern

1. Skip first hole. With Sierra, sley a loop through a slot, then through a hole. Repeat 14 times, then through a slot once. Cut yarn 2-3” past apron rod, then tie end of next color (rouille, rust) to it using an overhand knot. 31 dents (slots and holes) threaded or sleyed.

2. With rust, thread the next 25 spaces with yarn doubled as in 1. Cut yarn 2-3” past apron rod, then tie end of next color (Sierra) to it using an overhand knot.

3. Sierra in 25 spaces doubled.

4. Rust in 25 spaces doubled.

5. Sierra in 25 spaces doubled. This is the center section.

6. Rust in 25 spaces doubled.

7. Sierra in 25 spaces doubled.

8. Rust in 25 spaces doubled.

9. End with Sierra in 31 spaces, doubled.

Note: I moved the warping peg every 2 sections. I also put choke ties on each color stripe and chained them after removing them from the peg.

Note 2: Since I didn’t hem the sides of the towels, all of the colors could have been threaded the same width. Only the napkins are hemmed on the sides.

Yarn

My yarn choice is Maurice Brassard 8/2 cotton in Noir (black), Sierra (a warm lighter taupe brown), and Rouille (rust, my primitive bright for this project). I bought them from the Woolery’s online store along with the 10 dpi heddle I need for this project.

Tools

You will need one stick shuttle for each color being used as weft. (If you have the money, now might be a good time to investigate and buy a boat shuttle and bobbins or pirns.)

The 22” Ashford stick shuttles are a good width for weaving the full width of the heddle.

It would be nice to have a 25” stick to shove under the warp on the back beam to tighten up the warp as necessary. Cardboard works for worsted weight, but is not ideal for cotton IMO.

My design process

Heddle and yarn: I did a search of projects in the rigid heddle weavers group here on ravelry to discover what yarns and heddles and sleying are typically used for beginner’s towels. That’s how I came up with 8/2 cotton sleyed double in a 10dpi heddle/reed. The people who used this combination seemed to be happy with both the weaving process and finished products they were making, so I thought this might be a safe place to start.

Colors:
I haven’t seen any of Brassard’s colors in person, so I chose the Sierra because it seems to match a color in my home by the looks of the swatch I see on my screen. I chose the other two colors to coordinate with the Sierra.
(The color Sierra turned out to be more like Taupe and a lot less of a tobacco color than I thought it would be.)

I have no idea how many 3-color napkins can be woven with 3 8-ounce cones of 8/2 on my loom, so I am starting with a guess.

A Single Napkin:
I have some cloth napkins here at home that I enjoy using, so I will take measurements from them and use those finished measurements as a starting place for my handwoven napkins. They are 19” x 19” finished. Then I can plug in those measurements to the Schacht warp and weft calculator to determine my warp length and weft yarn requirements so I can warp the loom and wind the weft onto stick shuttles.

How big should I weave to get a 19”x19” napkin?

Hems: 1” each side. 21”x 21”.

(These are all guesstimates. I’ll know better once I actually do it. )

Shrinkage: I’ve seen people report they’ve lost 5” on a 20” wide piece and 6” on a 30” piece when washing cotton pieces. So I’m guessing about 20% shrinkage.
21”x.2=4.2. 21+4.2=25.2”

Before I even account for draw in, I need more width than my loom can weave using one heddle.

So, I’ll be warping all of the 24” width, or close to it.

Draw in on my width so far has been about 1”.
24” warped width - 1” draw in = 23” wide off loom.

I’m estimating 25.5” for each weft pick.
x 18 ppi = 459” for 1” of weaving.

I arbitrarily decided to weave each napkin 25” long.
4 napkins would require roughly 100” warp + 22” loom waste. This is longer than I’ve put on my loom before, so I will weave 3 napkins instead, and leave the longer warps for when I have more experience.

25” x 3 napkins = 75” woven length.
5% estimated take up ~= 5” (3.75 actual)
80” woven warp length
24” loom waste (overestimated for safety)
Warp length: 104”.

If woven 24” long for each napkin,
6 napkins would require 168” warp. (4 2/3 yds.)
8 napkins would require 216” warp. (6 yds.)

Add 3” between each cut if you want to weave in separators and cut them off the front beam to keep fabric from building too thickly there.
Release tension on the warp before cutting and put the heddle(s) in Neutral..
The end woven into the separator stays on the loom and gets tied to the front beam for winding on again.

How big should I weave to get an 18” x 27” towel?

Warp width should be about 5 ends less than this first warp.

Woven Length would be .77WL = 29”.
WL = 37.67 inches.
Call it a 38” woven length.
38 x 2 = 76” + 24” loom waste = 100” warp length.
38 x 3 = 114” + 24” loom waste = 138” warp length. (3.9 yds.)
38 x 4 = 152” + 24” loom waste = 176” warp length. (4.9 yds.)
38 x 7 = 266” + 24” loom waste = 290” warp length. (8.1 yds)

Now for the color details:

I know I want bold basketweave napkins, so I’ll need fairly wide stripes on the warp to get bold checks.
I doodled on graph paper to figure out how wide I want my warp stripes to be.
There will be 9 stripes, with the 2 edge stripes being wider than the others to add some extra width for hems.
The numbers that made the most sense were:
(All of these ends are doubled)
Sierra 31
Rust 25
Sierra 25
Rust 25
Center: Sierra 25
Rust 25
Sierra 25
Rust 25
Sierra 31
237 slots and holes, 474 ends.

Ends by color:
Sierra 274
Rust 200

Warp length by color:
Sierra 274 x 104 = 28,496”. / 36” = 792 yds.
Rust. 200 x 104 = 20,800”. / 36” = 578 yds.
Total: 1370 yds of 8/2 cotton for the warp.

Weaving width ~= 24”
Draw in 6% ~= 1.5”
Length per pick: 25.5”
x Estimated ppi: 18 to 20 =
459” to 510” per 1” of woven length.
X 75” = 34,425” to 38,250”
/36” = 957 to 1063 yards

So now I can estimate it will take less than 2 cones of 8/2 cotton (1680 yds per cone) to weave 3 napkins on my 24” ARHL with 10dpi heddle at 20 epi.

Weaving patterns

Napkin 1: One pick per shed. 14 ppi, beating hard.
Black, sierra, rust.
Repeat to 25” long.

Napkin 2: Two picks per shed.
Sierra, rust.
Repeat to 25” long, ending with sierra.

Napkin 3: One pick per shed. Basketweave, using one pick per shed with the yarn doubled on the stick shuttle, or two picks per shed with the yarn wound single on the shuttle.
Rust, black.
Repeat to 25” long, ending with rust.
I actually wove to about 30” long.

For each napkin: Mark hem turning lines with sewing thread on a weaving needle. Do a large running stitch as in basting.

Weaving ‘mantra’:

Because weaving two picks in one shed is new to me and I had difficulty remembering the steps, I made up a little mantra to help me:

Heddle up, fly under the radar. (Beat.)
Heddle up, take off and fly under the radar. (Beat.)
Heddle down, taxi on the runway. (Beat.)
Heddle down, land and taxi down the runway. (Beat.)

What this means: When the heddle is up, the yarn in the holes is up and tension is good, so I “fly under the radar” by sliding my stick shuttle just under the upper threads, thus avoiding any loose slot threads below.
On the second pick, I need to wrap the yarn around the outermost warp thread to provide a place for the yarn to catch. To “take off” means to place my shuttle under the outermost warp thread, which just happens to be in a slot and therefore is down when the heddle is up.

When the heddle is down, the hole threads are down and have good tension, so I can let the stick shuttle rest on and glide along the hole threads and avoid any slot threads that might be hanging slack. To “land” means to place my shuttle over the outermost warp thread, which is in a slot and up when the heddle is down.

I imagine the mantra would need to be different if the warp was threaded differently.

The other thing I’ve been doing is to place the resting shuttle on the table in front of me, on my left side. The weaving sequence begins on the left (I am right-handed.) Then before the return throw from right to left, I lift the threads from the resting shuttle onto the left upper edge of the heddle so the shuttle can glide under them on the return trip through the shed. This carries my second color semi-neatly up the selvedge.

Things I Learned from this Project:

1. I probably need more cardboard warping sticks. Or I should make the trek to Walmart for miniblinds 25” wide.

2. The simple tension device works, but the way I set it up (after the sleying), I think I trapped some slackness between the tension dowels. I’ll need to be more careful next time.

3. I definitely need a stronger back.

4. It would be nice to have a 2-bobbin shuttle. But it is easy enough to wind some of the yarn on a Bobbins Up bobbin, then wind the yarn double onto the shuttle. The weaving is very fast when the yarn is doubled. It’s nice to be able to use my spinning equipment to help me weave.

5. Always do the math on paper!!! I should make myself one of those motivational signs so I don’t forget.

6. My slot layer tends to be slack. I’m using S hooks to corral the worst offenders. A metal bar or rod hung from the slot layer at the back of the warp beam would be a much more convenient solution than the S hooks. Every time I advanced the warp, I had to replace or readjust the hooks. Too fiddly for me.

7. Try some of these tips next time: https://yarnworker.com/help-my-slot-layer-has-gone-slack/

8. I tend to procrastinate on projects where I see slower progress. But of course this makes the project take even longer. I need to double down when the going gets slow and plow through the thing. Just get on with it!

9. I timed myself for an hour. I was able to weave 6 1/2”, and quite a bit of that was two picks per shed because I had initially wound so much single black yarn onto the shuttle.

10. That’s only 4 hours per napkin at the worst. It would be quite a bit less if I did all basketweave napkins on one warp.

11. I need to figure out how to store or reuse the leftover thread on the shuttle. Maybe wind it on a swift, then onto plying balls or cardboard bobbins. I hope I will think it through better next time.

12. For each differently-patterned item on the warp, make a 1” wide guide strip with predetermined measurements for each. My first napkin was probably the most accurately woven, but it was downhill from there. I was too lazy to create new strips for each napkin, and it shows in the finished project.

13. I can weave yardage for sewing. Yes!!! Ridiculously excited about this.

14. Weave a worsted weight wool header at the end of the fabric to keep the last row from unraveling before you can zigzag over it.

15. To make square checks on cotton fabric, I should probably weave them slightly longer than square so that when the fabric shrinks, they shrink from rectangular to square.

16. I could have gotten four napkins from the first warp. Napkins need to be full width.

17. Towels could be narrower. Try warping 22” wide next time. If I warp slightly longer, I could get three towels from one warp.

18. When hand hemming, catch the fabric on a warp thread and the hem on a weft thread. This makes the easiest to stitch and most invisible line on the front of the towel.

Resources:

how to wind 2 balls at once for a single yarn source like a tube of 8/2 cotton:
https://youtu.be/3--cJ87y-mA

Project Timeline:

01-31-2019

Okay, ice pick headaches are gone and I managed to figure out how I’m going to thread the loom, tension the threads evenly, and how much yarn these napkins will require.

02-01-2019

I was wrong--I still have the dumb headache. Started warping today anyway.

02-05-2019

And, at last, I have a warp!

DH cut the dowels for the simple tension device to 30”, which makes it much easier to fasten them to the boards resting on the side boards of the loom.

I learned many things from this first attempt at using a simple tension device. I know there are a few looser threads here and there, and some slightly crossed in front of the tension device before I started winding onto the beam.

I wound black, rust, and Sierra on stick shuttles and wove a few picks tonight. Then I realized I need to think a little harder about weaving patterns and how I will measure length before I continue.
See weaving patterns above.
I decided to experiment a little again, since these napkins are really an experiment anyway.

02-06-2019

2/3 of the first napkin is woven.

02-07-2019

First napkin’s done and the second one’s started.

02-25-2019

Second napkin is woven.

I like weaving 2 threads per shed (basketweave the fast way). I think I’ll do this on the third napkin with black and rust.

03-01-2019

Third napkin is woven. I had about 5” extra weaveable warp, so I just used up the remaining thread I had on the shuttles. One end of this napkin has a extra-long area of rust weaving that might look nice if embroidered in black.

05-01-2019

Napkin hemmed: press and turn under 1” on each edge. Make a diagonal cut across each corner to reduce bulk. Corners first: Turn raw edge to crease; turn at crease and pin every 2” or so. Steam press again. Used black thread (should have matched the Sierra--I think it would have looked better) and stitched hems from wrong side. I told the Viking 1100 I was sewing on heavy woven fabric, and didn’t have to make any other adjustments. Hand stitch the mitered corners closed.

Next time, I’ll try hand hemming. I see now why so many weavers recommend it. I’ve already spent so much time on these; might as well make a beautiful hem.

1” hem will probably be fine for towels, but for next napkins, want to go down to 3/4” hems.

05-02-2019

Hand hemming might be slow, but it is totally appropriate for handwoven towels and relaxing and enjoyable to do.

05-04-2019

The second towel is hemmed and the project is complete! heart_eyes

Measurements off the loom:

Ollie won’t let me measure my fabric; he wants to play with the tape measure.

39.75” x 2= 79 1/2” (4.5” longer than planned because end of warp was still weaveable.)

Napkin 1: 21.375” wide

Napkin 2:

Napkin 3:

Weight of cones leftover:
Black 195.5g
Rust. 98.1g
Sierra. 98.0g

Yarn used:
Black. 227-195.5 = 31.5g
Rust. 227-98.1 = 128.9 g
Sierra 227-98= 129g

Finishing

Finishing steps from The Ashford Book of Rigid Heddle Weaving:
Cut
Zigzag
Wash in hot soapy water
Press
Hem.

I decided to finish as if I were prewashing purchased yardage: zigzag the two “cut” ends, hot wash and hot dry.
Then zigzag on each side of the cut edge, make the cut, press, and sew.

With handwoven cloth, which unravels faster than some purchased cloth, it might be better to zigzag first, then cut. I have started doing this and my edges stay firmer than if I cut first then zigzag.

Leapfrog Ideas: Where to go from here.

I’m really happy with the hand of the fabric now that it’s been washed and dried on “hot.”

Summer skirt

Winter tunic

Easter towels, striped warp, one color weft, would be quick to weave in basketweave if this fabric turns out nice. It’s very drapey right off the loom and I don’t know if that’s good or bad yet. I also need to know how much shrinkage I’ll have.

I want to order a 12.5 dpi heddle and try 8/2 cotton on it. Some people seem to prefer a denser sett for 8/2.

These colors look nice in our fronchroom.
Make 3-color checked fabric accents to use at the top of chairs in place of doilies for summer. Black should definitely be one of the colors.
I might replace the Sierra with old gold or something else that goes better with our chairs.

08-21-2020 MEASUREMENTS AFTER USING

Larger towel is 18 3/4” x 24” after using it weekly for more than one year.