In The Kitchen

home made current scones

 For most families today the kitchen is the heart of the home.  It is a centre of warmth, literally and figuratively.  It is a place to prepare meals and gather informally as a family to share more than just food.

It is often the room that makes or breaks the sale of a house.  In the kitchen, efficiency, and esthetics are both important. 

For weavers, the kitchen is an inspiration to create cloth that is both beautiful and practical.  At some point in their career every hand weaver discovers the joys of hand woven tea towels.  

valentine inspired tea towel

So, what makes a good tea towel?  It must be absorbant and washable.  It should be of a practical size, not so thick that you can't use it to dry the inside of a glass and not so thin that it won't stand up to heavy use.  The colours should not fade with washing.  (The tea towel in the scone photo has been drying dishes for 10 years).  Cotton, linen (or a mix of the two) are the fibers of choice for absorbancy.  

classic twill tea towels

Weave structures that create small skips add to the absorbancy of the cloth.  Twills, huck and basket weave are good choices.  

waffle weave

simple dish cloths

dish cloths

Linda's apron

Dish cloths can be another opportunity to bring some colour and design into the kitchen.  Cotton is the ideal fiber.  Try a weave structure like waffle weave that creates a thick absorbant cloth with deep cells.  Just make sure you allow for the dramatic change in size when you first wash them.

What about dressing up the chef with an apron made from hand woven yardage.  It might be decorating in the extreme but you could match your chef's outfit with your tea towels.  You might want to reserve this special apron for baking rather than making sphagetti sauce.

Meanwhile back in the studio 

making the warp for a studio project

We have added a sunday afternoon open studio day to our schedule of regular events in order to accomodate our members who work during the week.  It takes place from 1 to 4 on the last Sunday of the month.  Drop in with whatever you are working on, borrow a book, pick up some yarn, make a warp, use the large carder or just come for a chat.

The next open studio day will be June 25th because we will be spending the afternoon of May 29th at the Qualcium Beach Family Day event.  The event runs from 1 to 4.  We will be there with our looms and spinning wheels and more.  Come along and try your hand at braiding or just stop by and say hello.

 

The Tea Towel and Why Weavers Love Them

  

 Tea towels are one of the first items a novice weaver makes and they continue to be a favourite project for even the most experienced weaver.

 When you weave a tea towel you are producing an artful piece of cloth that has a practical purpose.No need to feel guilty about having fun at the loom.  Instead think of your tea towel effort as a link to those weavers of old who produced their own household linens out of necessity.  Your tea towel project may not be as complex as their historic coverlets.  It may be on a smaller scale than the yards and yards of drapery material people wove in the 70's.  But, like those items it is a household necessity that you made by hand in your own style.

Rita's towels

 Tea towels make useful projects for exploring colour and weave structure.  They are a good size to illustrate an effect.  Their use relatively inexpensive materials and they are more useful than small samples.  If you plan ahead, one long warp can be used to explore different treadling variations as illustrated in the tea towels drying in the sun.  You can also explore how different weft colours will blend with the warp as illustrated below.

Pat's unhemmed tea towels

Sylvia's zigzagstripes

A multitude of tea towel designs can be found on line or you can have the fun and satisfaction of designing your own.  It is relatively easy to work out the threads and yards so you can concentrate on the visual design.  The rectangular shape is perfect for warp or weft stripes.  If you base your colours on those part cones in your stash you can make a practical item and clean out your yarn supply at the same time.  That allows you to claim double brownie points.

You can use many different weave structures or combinations of structures to make a tea towel making them a great project for learning about weave structure.  The photo below shows one of the guild tea towel projects that is designed for beginners in the group.  In this example the design involves two different structures that creates textural stripes.

 Now probably the most important feature of a hand woven tea towel is its ability to disappear from your studio.  They make wonderful gifts.  They are easy to pack in a suitcase or mail to a distant relative.  Wrap a loaf of home made bread in one and you have a thoughtful hostess gift.  Colour coordinate one with your friend's new kitchen and you have a special house warming present.

And best of all, they are the most popular woven item at guild sales.  So, if you are staying close to home these days and wondering what to weave, you can't go wrong with tea towels.  Make a long warp and have fun while learning something new.

tea towels for sale