Towel Weaving Pattern for 4-shaft Looms // Design by Felicia Lo
The Bitmap 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), available at our Bitmap Towels Yarn Set.
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.
Skill Level
- Intermediate
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, reed hook, paper or warp sticks for beaming the warp, 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
Finished Measurements
- Each towel measures approximately 21 1/2" / 54.6 cm wide x 31 1/2" / 80 cm long
This pattern is available for download in the School of SweetGeorgia Pattern Library. Not yet an SOS member? Visit the School of SweetGeorgia for online fibre arts workshops and resources to help expand your skills and discover new techniques, including Felicia's Weaving Summer & Winter on 4-Shafts online course.
