Crackle Towels

I used a pattern from the Davison book for these towels as my first weaving project with a crackle pattern.  I love how the finished product looks, so I'm definitely going to be doing some more crackle.

This was a tough project to weave because the warp was a cotton single that had good strength, but abraded easily.  I ended up using a paperclip temple to minimize draw-in and also using hairspray as a sizing.  It really did help a ton.  I went from breakages every few picks to having only one or two every yard.  

I had intended to weave 6 towels on this warp.  However, due to the extreme breakages at the beginning, I cut the first towel short at an approximate square shape. It's going to be made into a pillow where the poor selvedges from all those breakages won't show.  That meant I didn't have quite enough warp for a full 6th towel, so I have another one that will be a pillow candidate.  I think they're going to look quite charming (one blue and one purple).  But for now, I just have the towels to show.

I did 2 with an unmercerized loosely spun dark blue 8/2 cotton that's unsuitable for warp, but quite lovely as weft.  2 others are a chocolate brown, and the remaining one is 5/2 mercerized red cotton.