Bitmap Towels

Bitmap Towels // weaving pattern for 4-shaft looms by Felicia Lo

The Bit Map Towels pattern weaves this beautiful block-weave structure in four full-size kitchen towels. With this summer & winter design, Felicia wanted to experiment with colour mixing and blending with each block while working with a minimalist colour palette. In these towels, we use a complementary colour combination (yellow and purple are complementary colours) with a neutral (white). 

The weaving drafts explore treadling variations for Summer & Winter, including singles, paired O's, and dukagång. 

The pattern is free for School of SweetGeorgia members, and can be found on the first lesson, 0.1 Weaving Summer & Winter Materials page. 

Please see our Weaving Summer & Winter on 4-Shafts course for more detailed instructions and resources on how to weave summer & winter. You will need an All-Access membership to the School of SweetGeorgia to download the pattern PDF for free. As a member, you can explore over 100 courses on weaving, dyeing, spinning, knitting and more! All-Access membership also grants you access to the community forums; get support from course instructors and have conversations with fellow members in the forums threads or one of our many virtual meet-ups!

Get the yarn set here.

SKILL LEVEL

Intermediate

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS

Each towel measures approximately 21 1/2" / 54.6 cm wide x 31 1/2" / 80 cm long

YARN

Warp & Weft: 5 tubes Maurice Brassard 8/2 Unmercerized Cotton (1680 yd / 1530 m per 8 oz / 227 g tube; 3360 ypp/ 6775 mpkg; 100% Cotton); 2 tubes in Blanchi 101 (White), 1 tube each in Mauve Foncé 4273 (Dark Purple), Mauve Pâle 5120 (Light Purple), Jaune Or 3161 (Gold).

EQUIPMENT & TOOLS

Loom: 4-shaft loom with 6 treadles at least 26" / 66 cm wide

Tools: 8-dent (sleyed 2 per dent) or 12-dent reed (sleyed 1-1-2), (4) boat or stick shuttles, bobbins and bobbin winder (if you are using a boat shuttle), reed hook, paper or warp sticks for beaming the warp (depending on how you dress your loom), scissors, measuring tape, yarn needle.

STRUCTURE

Weave Structure: Summer & Winter

Warp Length: 5 yd / 4.6 m (includes 40" / 101.6 cm for sampling, loom waste, take-up, and shrinkage) to weave 4 towels

Warp Ends: 400 ends, plus 2 floating selvedges = 402

Warp Sett: 16 epi / 6.3 epcm

Weft Sett: Approximately 29 ppi / 11.4 ppcm for Singles to 32 ppi / 12.6 ppcm for Paired and Dukagång. 16 ppi / 6.3 ppcm for plain weave hems.

Width in Reed: 25 1/8" / 63.8 cm

Woven Length: 35" / 88.9 cm for each towel = 140" / 355.6 cm total length. 4 towels total.

This pattern is free for School of SweetGeorgia members. Visit the School of SweetGeorgia for loads of courses and tutorial resources to help bump your skills and discover new techniques, including Amanda Wood's Colour and Weave on Rigid Heddle Loom course.