Blue Monday

Ok, Tuesday. Reference 

This entry is in honor of Opal’s favorite colors.

I wove these towels a few years ago to play around with color. I feel one of my weaknesses is putting colors together. On occasion, I do a project like this to try things out and try to expand my horizons.

The weave structure is plain weave. The yarn is Cottolin, set at 20 e.p.i. I love using Cottolin for towels. They have such a substantial feel, to me, as well as a matte finish, which I prefer over the look of mercerized cotton. But there is just enough cotton in there to make them easy care. (I just throw these in the washer and dryer, as I would any cotton fabric.)

I started with tromp as writ (meaning the same sequence that is in the warp is in the weft.) Honestly, this was the hardest one to weave because I knew what to expect. It was kind of boring to me.

This is where I started to experiment. I substituted purple for the green of the last towel. I liked it, but was not overly impressed by it.

Next was replacing the blue weft of the tromp towel with purple, keeping the green in the plaid. This really didn’t read all that different to me than the tromp towel.

Finally, I replaced the blue in the tromp towel with the green, and the green in the tromp towel with the purple. This is the one that I really liked and would do again and again. It almost looks like there are two separate, transparent layers passing over each other. This was the towel that I entered into the Maryland State Fair and got a first prize for.

All of these towels are now in the hands of my family, given to them as part of a Christmas present. I don’t think any of them see the light of day anymore because, well, lets just say the colorways just are not them. My family tends to go for more subtle colorways.

About a month ago, I was asked by someone in a spinning group that I belong to why I would weave a dishtowel. My answer was this:

A dishtowel is something that I can weave and play around with different thoughts that are in my head for color, structure, and technique, and still have something of use after I am done. It is an incredibly useful swatch to me.

Of course, you can ask Roseann. I used to question why people would want to knit socks. (Don’t worry, I am a convert now.)