Rolling on the Cloth Beam

A few posts ago, Sue asked "...can't wait to see how you deal with the 'bumps' from the knots against the woven web as goes around the beam." I promised to post a picture once the towel warp reached the point where I insert the heavy paper. So here it is:



Actually, the knots are pretty small, because this is 20/2 cotton and I'm knotting half-inch bouts with an overhand knot. In any case, the paper takes care of any lumps. The paper tucks under the apron rod, and is long enough for a couple of turns around the beam, so the knots have paper on both sides - over and under.

Here's a close-up of that border pattern - perhaps it will show up better than in yesterday's post.



In the finished cloth, the difference in luster between the unmercerized warp and mercerized weft should be easily visible.

I've woven an inch of hem (using finer matching weft), an inch of the towel body pattern (2/2 broken twill) with the main weft, one repeat of the border pattern (3 rows of flowers) and then back to the body pattern. Reverse steps at the other end, but the border pattern is upside down in relation to the first iteration of the border, so the two ends of the towel will match when folded in half.

The second towel, which made an appearance in Monday's post, is now woven, as is the third. The third uses the same pale blue-violet weft, so the pattern is virtually invisible. No point in posting a picture until it's wet-finished.

Towel #4 is just begun, using the peach weft. Finally, a weft color different enough from the warp that the pattern will show! Pictures tomorrow.