Weaving a Plaited Twill
Beginning
This is Constance at the beginning of weaving…a friend has put a cotton tea-towel warp onto her loom and invited me and Constance to weave a 30 inch towel…mine starts after the red line of wefts. First there is a bit of plain white that will become the hem…
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Green!
…the person before us wove her piece with lime green wefts! We decided on a neutral off-white for our towel.
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Treadling Chart
Constance is a very experienced weaver. She is also very helpful: holding the treadling chart;
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Pedals
…indicating the proper pedal (she isn’t actually heavy enough to depress them);
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Ready
…she is ready to catch the shuttle as it slips through the warp shed;
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Whee
… and here it comes!
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bobbins
She also helps to wind the bobbins and hold onto them until they are needed…
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empty!
…when the weft thread runs out. Then she pops out the empty bobbin…
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Full
…pops in the new full bobbin…
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overlap
…then we overlap the wefts for a couple of inches and resume weaving!
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counter
She helps count the weft threads to see whether I am beating the reed too gently, too hard or just right.
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Just right
Looks like just right to me…
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Ta Da!
…and after a couple of hours and a lot of counting, we are done! We have to wait until the whole warp is woven before we can claim our tea towel, but what a fun way to spend the morning! Thanks Hitty friend!
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Quimper Hittys 
Seeing Constance helping out with your shared experience is a comforting way to keep the tapestry of life following a regular pattern each year. Your towel looks like it will be very pretty and well done.
Thanks so much. We like the classic towel – plain white with the stripes. And we really love the process (and result) of weaving.
I had to read through three times to grasp that this is currently a very, very long tea towel with sections woven by various friends. What a wonderful shared project. Also – the magnifier with the precise thread measuring gauge wins my Tool of the Day award.
We love our thread counter! And during weaving,while the towels are on the loom, they are basically one continuous long towel, like a one of those roller towels. You cut them apart after the whole warp is woven! That is a very exciting moment!
That’s going to be a handsome towel! So good of Constance to help you with this project.
(I am continually amazed at your photographic skills.)
We love having Constance to egg us on – many hands (including tiny ones) make light work!!
Lovely!!!! every photo sings!!!! That tea towel will be a joy for years to come!
It is so satisfying to weave again. My friend is so nice to let me have a section of her warp!
I would love to learn more about weaving one day.
I love the hemslojden organisations in Sweden. When you arrive at the time when you have time and energy to learn, I am sure they will be there to help!
Thank goodness you have Constance to help! How generous of your friend to invite you to work on her loom.
I am so grateful to my friend! Weaving is very satisfying to me on a lot of different levels – and weaving rag rugs is a great way to use up scraps!!! I will try to get my loom set up one of these days and do that!
happy to see Hittys and humans weaving together.
Constance is a faithful helper! We are always glad when our friend invites us to share a warp!
I love the pattern on the tea towel and Constance has been working hard!
Thanks! We like it too!