Stars and Diamonds - Interweave

Stars and Diamonds

for a show towel on fourteen shafts

T O M K N I S E LY

Designed to display the skills of their makers and not to be used as ordinary towels, fancy embellished and fringed show towels (also called "door towels" because they were sometimes hung on the parlor door) were common in nineteenth-century Pennsylvania. A friend's acquisition of an antique show towel, embroidered with characteristic Pennsylvania German eight-pointed star motifs, inspired me to make a show towel of my own.

A lthough most nineteenth-century show towels from Pennsylvania are embroidered plain-weave linen, some of the show towels made in areas of northern Europe were designed to show off weaving skills as well. Jane Evans reports that in early twentiethcentury Latvia, weaving skills could be found "on display in the form of a towel prominently hung on a featured hanger."

Show towel characteristics

Show towels usually consist of four open-

field areas, graduated or equal in size, sep-

arated by patterned bands of varying

widths. The bands can be woven or em-

broidered or textured in woven lace or

drawn thread work.

The distribution of the pattern bands

in show towels is usually asymmetrical,

with the widest band of pattern placed at

the bottom. Narrow bands usually sepa-

rate progressively smaller areas of plain

weave, ending with a medium band of

pattern at the top. Most show towels are

fringed at the bottom and hemmed at the

top, with hanging loops or tabs at each

end of the top hem.

Cont'd, page 5

Tom Knisely of York, Pennsylvania, teaches a variety of classes at The Mannings. He adapts traditional textiles for contemporary use.

? Handwoven? magazine, Interweave Press LLC. Not to be reprinted. All rights reserved.

1. Tied overshot draft for an 8-pointed star

In tied overshot, blocks can be as wide as the practical length of a float allows; in this draft they are either three or five threads wide. Tied overshot has a characteristic checkerboard appearance created by the lifting order of the tie-down threads on shafts 1 and 2. Unlike summer and winter, in which tie-down shafts are raised in alternate picks, in this version of tied overshot they are raised in alternate blocks. The most successful designs in tied overshot are simple geometric shapes like rectangles, triangles, and diamonds. As in summer and winter, pattern picks alternate with tabby picks; tabby picks are not shown in this draft. See Resources for more about tied overshot and its several variations.

HANDWOVEN 1

? Handwoven? magazine, Interweave Press LLC. Not to be reprinted. All rights reserved.

S T E P S F O R W E AV I N G T H E S H O W T O W E L

2. Draft for towel 5x

14 14

31 31

13 13

21 21

12 12

11 11

11 11

01 01

10 10

99

99

888

888

777

777

666

666

555

555

444

444

333

333

22

22

22

2

2

2

2

2

2

22

22

22

11

11

11

1

1

1

1

1

11

11

11

floating selvedges

Step Wind 447 ends 16/2 cotton 2 yd

1 long. Use your preferred method to warp the loom for a width in the reed of 15" at 30 epi (2/dent in a 15-dent reed or 3/dent in a 10-dent reed). Thread following Figure 2, making sure you have enough heddles on each shaft; see Figure 3.

Step Tie up the treadles as indicated in Fig-

2 ure 5, page 5. (This towel is woven with large sections of plain weave. If your loom has lamms that pivot from one side of the loom, place the tabby treadles on the side farther away from the pivot point to help with the treadling action.) Weave plain weave with scrap yarn to spread the warp, allowing at least 6" for fringe including the amount used to tie on.

Step Wind a bobbin with 16/2 cotton for

3 the plain-weave and tabby weft and a bobbin with 22/2 navy cottolin for the pattern weft. In the opposite tabby shed from the one you like to start with, place a slippery ribbon or heavy nylon cord twice the width of the warp

so the ends hang out at the sides, and beat into place. (This is a spacer for later hemstitching.)

Step You'll be weaving the towel from the

4 bottom (wide pattern band) to the top following the order indicated below the treadling in Figure 5. Leaving a tail three times the width of the warp, weave 3" of plain weave and then thread the tail through a tapestry needle. Catch the nylon cord on the opposite side from the tail of weft and pull gently to remove about half of it, creating a narrow opening. Hemstitch, continuing to remove the cord as you go. When you are finished, end the thread along the selvedge.

Step Adjust a temple to the width of the

5 warp in the reed and insert near the fell in the section of plain weave. As you weave the towel, be sure to move the temple every 3/4?1" to help prevent drawing in. (The temple is particularly helpful in the pattern areas, which tend to draw in more than the plainweave areas.)

Step Weave Pattern 1 in Figure 5. In sec-

6 tions where numbers are given in the treadling, each number represents the number of pattern picks (in navy cottolin) to make using the same pattern treadle. "Use tabby" means to weave a tabby pick with 16/2 cotton before every pattern pick, always alternating tabby treadles 1 and 2 and always weaving so that the pattern shuttle follows the tabby shuttle. For example, where the treadling in Pattern 1 first shows a 4: weave tabby (treadle 1), weave pattern (treadle 3), weave tabby (treadle 2), weave pattern (treadle 3), and repeat. When you use the navy shuttle for plain-weave picks, carry the navy weft up the selvedge in the places where there are several navy stripes together before ending the navy thread.

Step Continue, weaving plain-weave areas

7 and Patterns 2 and 3 as directed for the length of the towel. When you have woven the first 1/2" of the hem at the top, weave 2 picks Navy to mark the fold line, weave the last 1/2", and hemstitch.

PROJECT AT-A-GLANCE

Weave structure for show towel Tied overshot and plain weave.

Equipment 16-shaft loom (14 shafts are used), 15" weaving width; 15-dent or 10-dent reed; 2 shuttles; tapestry needle, temple (stretcher).

Yarns Warp: 16/2 unmercerized cotton (6,720

yd/lb), natural, 894 yd (21/6 oz). Plain-weave and tabby weft: 16/2

unmercerized cotton (6,720 yd/lb), natural, 475 yd (11/6 oz). Pattern weft: 22/2 cottolin (60% cotton,

40% linen, 3,170 yd/lb), navy #127, 143 yd (3/4 oz).

Notions and other materials Off-white cotton sewing thread.

Yarn source 16/2 Klippans unmercerized cotton is available from The Mannings and navy cottolin from most weaving retailers.

Warp order and length 447 ends 2 yd long (includes 2 floating selvedges and allows 5" for take-up and 30" for loom waste). Add 44" to warp

length for each additional towel.

Warp and weft spacing Warp: 30 epi (2/dent in a 15-dent reed,

or 3/dent in a 10-dent reed). Width in the reed: 15". Weft: 28 ppi in plain-weave sections; 44 ppi in pattern sections (22 ppi tabby weft, 22 ppi pattern weft). Woven length (measured under tension on the loom): 37".

Finished dimensions After washing, amounts produce one show towel, 121/2" ? 31" plus 5" fringe on one end, a hem on the other.

? Handwoven? magazine, Interweave Press LLC. Not to be reprinted. All rights reserved.

HANDWOVEN 3

Shaft 14

10

Shaft 13

20

3. Heddle Shaft 12

20

count Shaft 11

20

Shaft 10

20

Shaft 9

20

Shaft 8

30

Shaft 7

30

Shaft 6

30

Shaft 5

30

Shaft 4

30

Shaft 3

18

Shaft 2

82

Shaft 1

85

445

Step Cut the top of the towel from the warp,

8 trimming close to the hemstitching. Untie the fringe from the apron rod and remove the scrap yarn.

Step For hanging loops, make a 4-strand

9 round braid (see McEneely in Resources) 8" long using 4 strands 16/2 cotton. Cut the braid in half and tie the ends of each piece together with an overhand knot to make a loop. Place one loop at each end of the top of the towel. Turn the hem allowance to the wrong side at the navy stripe and press. Fold again and sew the hem, stitching the knotted ends of the loops securely in the hem.

Step Gently wash your towel by hand in

10warm water with Orvus Paste or other mild soap. Rinse well and roll in towels to squeeze out as much water as possible. Press dry on a cotton setting. Trim the fringe to 5" or desired length. Hang your finished towel in your kitchen--or on your parlor door and invite people in to see it!

Resources Atwater, Mary M. "Pattern No. 76." A Book

of Patterns for Hand-Weaving by John Landes. Redlands, California: San Bernardino County Museum, 1991, p. 92. Evans, Jane A. A Joy Forever: Latvian Weaving, Traditional and Modified Uses. Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press, 1993, page 11. Knisely, Tom, and Lynn Tedder. "Reviving the Show Towel: Stars in the Kitchen." Handwoven, March/April 2006, pages 60?63. McEneely, Naomi. "Four-strand round braid." Compendium of Finishing Techniques. Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press, 2003, page 81. van der Hoogt, Madelyn. "Tied Overshot." The Complete Book of Drafting for Handweavers. Petaluma, California: Shuttle-Craft Books, Inc., 1993, pp. 84?87.

? Handwoven? magazine, Interweave Press LLC. Not to be reprinted. All rights reserved.

HANDWOVEN 4

4. Tied overshot

5. Treadling for show towel

D

6 66 5

11

C

55

22

B

444 11

A

333 22

66 6 6

6

5 55 5 5

44 44 4

3

333 3

22 22

11 11

pattern in A

pattern in B

pattern in C

pattern in D

pattern in all blocks

backgound in all blocks

Notice that the pattern weft shows in alternate blocks in alternate picks throughout: either as a float or in a halftone. This alternation creates the checkerboard appearance of tied overshot.

Since I am a Pennsylvania weaver, I wanted my show towel to combine the form of traditional Pennsylvania German show towels with a woven structure that could evoke the eight-pointed stars of the embroidered original. I chose "star-and-diamond weave," also called tied overshot, a traditional coverlet weave used by professional weavers in nineteenth-century Pennsylvania. Its typical motifs--diamonds and triangles--can be combined to make eight-pointed stars; see Figure 1, page 1.

Tied overshot In spite of its name, tied overshot is structurally related more to summer and winter than it is to overshot. Like other tied-unit weaves, tied overshot has regularly spaced warp threads that tie supplementary pattern-weft floats to a plain-weave ground cloth. Like summer and winter, two shafts are reserved for the tie-down threads, shafts 1 and 2. Also like summer and winter, pattern shafts alternate with tie-down shafts in the threading. Unlike summer and winter, however, in tied overshot one tie-down shaft can be repeated one or more times with a pattern shaft before changing to the other tie-down shaft and a different pattern shaft.

Examine Figure 4. Notice that the halftones that make this weave look like overshot are created by the tie-down shafts, either where they are raised in pattern areas for the pattern pick or where they are not raised in background areas. Both pattern and background areas therefore always contain halftones. For more about tied overshot and its variations, see Resources.

True eight-pointed stars require a minimum of 12 blocks and therefore 14 shafts in tied overshot. My star-and-diamond pattern is from John Landes and is very shaft efficient as star-anddiamond patterns go. Many antique star-and-diamond coverlets show patterns requiring 24 shafts or more (for a version of starand-diamond weave on eight shafts, see Lynn Tedder's show towel in Handwoven, March/April 2006, pages 60?63).

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

14 14 14 14 14 14 14

13 13 13 13 13 13

12 12 12 12 12

11 11 11 11

10 10 10

99

8

88888

8

7

7777

77

6

666

666

5

55

5555

4

4 44444

3

333333

2222222

1111111

/

/

/

/

/ /

/ /

plain weave

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

14 14 14 14 14 14 14

13 13 13 13 13 13

12 12 12 12 12

11 11 11 11

10 10 10

99

8

88888

8

7

7777

77

6

666

666

5

55

5555

4

4 44444

3

333333

2222222

1111111

/

/

/ / 4 4 4 4 4

/ /

use tabby

Pattern 2

/ /

/ /

/ / 4

4 4

4 4 4 2 2 2

2

use tabby

2

2 2x

2

2

2

2

2

4

4

4

4

4

4

/

/

/ /

/ /

/ /

/ /

/ /

Pattern 1

/ /

/

3x

/

4

4 4

4

4

4

2

2

2

2

2

use tabby

2

2

2

2

2

2

4

4

4

4

4

4

/

/

3x

Pattern 3

3" plain weave (hemstitch beginning) Pattern 1 5" plain weave Pattern 2 4" plain weave Repeat pattern 2 3-1/4" plain weave Repeat pattern 2 2-1/2" plain weave Pattern 3 2-1/2" plain weave 2 picks plain weave with navy 1/2" plain weave

/ plain-weave and tabby weft (16/2 cotton)

pattern weft (22/2 cottolin, navy #127)

2 2 picks pattern weft alternating with tabby

The project towel The towel on page 2 is woven with 16/2 unmercerized natural cotton for warp and tabby weft and 22/2 cottolin for pattern weft (see the steps for weaving the towel on pages 3?5). I used a 4-strand braid for the hanging loops. For a more antique look, use 20/1 unbleached linen as the tabby weft. To weave fabric for tabs instead of braided loops, follow the instructions in the article in the March/April 2006 Handwoven.

? Handwoven? magazine, Interweave Press LLC. Not to be reprinted. All rights reserved.

HANDWOVEN 5

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