Faded Denim cotton yarn washcloth

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Here is a tangle of worsted cotton yarn left over from another project. The coin is a US 25 cent piece for scale. It's a variegated color yarn from Peaches & Creme called Faded Denim. After I untangled it, I measured it and found it to be about 200 feet long. Long enough for a wash cloth. A wash cloth takes about 180 ft of yarn.



Here I have lashed dowels to my frame loom at 11 inch apart and I'm doing a continuous warp in and out of the dowels, supporting the loom on a laundry basket. The piece is planned at 11 inch long by 11 inch wide. The warp spacing is 8 per inch, so the warp uses about 75 ft. The weft spacing will also be 8 per inch so that's another 75 ft, leaving 50 feet for edge cords.



Here is the warp spaced out on the dowels and I am adding a twined edge cord to the top and bottom edge of the piece. Then I lashed the bottom edge cord to another dowel for top and bottom.


I forgot to take pictures of the weaving process, so we'll jump ahead. Here you can see the bottom edge cords lashed to the short dowels, that were then stretched and tied to the frame. The variegated yarn creates its own color pattern as is it used for the warp and weft. The open areas are part of a "leno lace" technique that I wanted to try out. The sides are not as sturdy looking as I would have liked. I could have added edge cords during weaving, but I am oversewing the edges. See how the left side without oversewing is different from the right side which is getting oversewed. I oversewed the left edge after I did the right edge.

I'm not totally satisfied with the look on the sides. I think on the next piece I'll use a twining cord on the sides after weaving to get a better looking edge.



Here is the piece cut off the loom. During weaving, I kept a ruler on the piece and kept checking the width (11 inch) to avoid the pull in factor experienced on the last two pieces. This piece came out much more square than the previous pieces. It measures 10 inch long and 10-3/4 inch wide.

This piece is not wet finished yet. The weave is somewhat balanced, very open in spots and less open in other spots. I expect after wet finish and some 10% of shrinkage the weave will look more even.

I started this on Monday night June 22 and finished on Wednesday night June 24. This is starting to go very quickly as I get my routine figured out.

I wanted to make washcloths with continuous warp to avoid the fringe edges (and loom cutoff waste) I get with a rigid heddle loom with my dishtowels. I don't mind the tassels on the corners and I can put a loop on the corner for convenient hanging (see the bottom right corner).

I should point out this is woven with techniques taken from Navajo weaving. It’s woven on a homemade frame loom, uses edge cords on the bottom and top, (but not the sides). I used a string heddle stick and a shed stick. It’s continuous warped. It has tassels on the corners.

Have a good day!