Handwoven Cotton Tea Towels
This picture really highlights how nicely the towels have withstood the brutality of keeping a kitchen clean!
I have decided that handwoven tea towels is my new favorite thing to weave. If you have dipped your toe into weaving projects, you’ve probably made a few scarves—but have you tried making towels? Tea towels are easy to come by at stores, but a good one that’s absorbent and looks nice might set you back $10. Cotton yarn is relatively cheap and available in a variety of colors (sure, perhaps not in as many colors as we find for wool/silk) and you might be able to make two towels for the same price. The selling feature isn’t the cheap price; I think it resides in the wonderful material qualities of a handwoven towel.
I made two tea towels for about $10 when I was at a weaving workshop at the guild back in late 2017. We followed a series of exercises devised by our teacher, Wendy, to explore the ways we can alternate colors to create interesting patterns. As many of you know, I struggle with anything intricate (eg, lace, colorwork) or requires me to me to be random. Having a method to follow in a sequence (pattern block A, pattern block B…) was great and my towels don’t look too boring. Note: if you want the pattern exercises I followed to make your own sample towels, let me know and I can see about getting permission to publish them.
Aside from the simplicity of the pattern and ease of weaving in tabby, they have held up very well. At first, I was skeptical that they’d last and I did treat them differently as compared to my store-bought towels. After a few months and a few washes, I stopped caring because they held up very well! Two and a half years later, they still look great despite a few spots where the yarns are starting to fray. The fringe, which I was certain would start to fall apart after a few washes, has held together very well too. Overall, I am very please with the result and I hope that I have inspired others to pursue making handwoven tea towels.
Notions:
I used a rigid heddle loom (Kromski Harp), 32”, though I think you would do well with a 16” loom
Cotton yarn in three colors, but you could do just one or two, sport weight (or a little thicker if you want very absorbent towels)
Aim for 20” in length or else they might be too short
You can also vary the setup for colorwork, as I did, or you can make smaller towels, washcloths, etc., or with a 32” loom, you can make larger towels and bath rugs. I’m sure you could use handspun cotton for a project like this but mine isn’t very good yet and I’d be afraid that the towel wouldn’t last very long. Linen would be a good alternative and is something I’ve considered trying out too. I have some hemp that I started spinning last summer that would be good to trial as tea towels too.
I find it somewhat amusing that I have spent so many years spinning yarn and making a variety of things I can wear, but I am only just now really considering how to improve on basic household textiles. In my research on textile production in Iron Age Britain, researchers are mainly concerned about cloth for clothing and thinking about what people wore and what they looked like (in terms of fashion), but we tend to fail to think about household goods even though they should be as obvious as protecting our skin. I presented a paper last year which addressed this issue and discussed ways we need to think through the products of the loom during this period, but I must admit, it is very hard to think about when you don’t have a lot of ‘spare’ time to spin and make something nice. Until now, I’ve only concerned myself with wearing the things I make and not using them for drying vegetables and wiping up spills. My opinion has changed and I look forward to more woven crafts like these beautiful tea towels!
