I had 17% take up and shrinkage in both length and width. I washed this fabric in the machine, regular cycle, using clear Ivory dish detergent, and dried in the dryer for 30 minutes, then pressed damp with steam.
Of the 7 yards, 4 yards went toward making 4 towels, 2 yards were for Cross Country Weavers samples, and the last bit was for sampling and loom waste. The theme for the CCW exchange this year was Bronson. I had a lot of fun reading Dorothy Burton's book Versatile Bronson when thinking about this challenge. It has a lot of great ideas! The book can still be purchased via the Boston Guild.
The towels were made to match a new set of dusty-blue and chocolate-brown dishware we recently purchased. At least that's the cover story. The real story is my husband is The Cook, and it drives me crazy when there is an emergency in the kitchen and he grabs one of my "good" towels. So I decided to weave him a batch of "good" towels in a dark colorway that won't look horrible the first time he wipes up spilled gravy or tea!
You can find the draft under the draft tab, Bronson Dishtowels
What a nice way to honor Dorrie Burton!
Laurie Autio
Laurie,
I LOVED it. And what I didn't mention here is that this 7 yards followed 9 previous yards in Bronson (posted this fall at Weavolution), to be sewn up into curtains at a historic site. My stuff is pretty tame compared to what some of the participants wove. And amazingly, you don't need a bazillion shafts to get a lot of design "wow" from this structure. (A point well-made and illustrated in Dorrie's book!)
I was hoping to get to meet Dorrie at the Historic Textile Conference next month, but don't think that will happen. And yes, I checked her book out of the guild library for so many months, I decided I had to purchase my own copy!
If you know her, tell her I am a fan!
Drat, I just typed in a long message and lost it somehow. Anyway... I weave a lot of lace and have taught quite a few lace classes. Next week I am doing one on Spot Bronson for my advanced class. Nothing beats the laces for me in WOW factor, and ease of one shuttle treadling. One of the most complex patterns I have ever woven was a 4-shaft Spot Bronson!
I'm guessing that Dorrie won't be at Clayton, but am not sure. I will pass along your nice comments to her when I send her WGBoston Bulletin (I'm the editor). I don't know Dorrie well, but have enjoyed several pleasant conversations with her over the years. As I recall, my first introduction to her was at the first lace class I taught, at NEWS in 1995. The class list arrived in the mail a few weeks before NEWS, and contained her name plus most of the other New England master lace weavers. I almost fell on the floor! Fortunately they were a kind and gracious lot, especially Dorrie. I hope to see her in a few weeks to photograph her contribution to the WGB 90th Anniversary book we are putting together. She is still sharp as a tack and wonderful to talk to.
Laurie Autio
Sally
These are absolutely beautiful. The colorways are great and I am sure you will never be able to tell if they have been used to wipe up gravy!!!
Suzy
Hi I was just wondering if you used a floating selvedge for this? I have 16 shafts available and was wondering if putting a simple tabby on the other shafts would be of benefit.
The area near the edges are already in plain weave, so no floating selvedges were needed in this application.
However, I find I tend to design "up" when I have extra (empty) shafts. Dorrie Burton's book recommends spreading a densely threaded shaft over two shafts instead of one, which can apply to a variety of structures beyond Bronson. (That was just one nugget of gold from her book!)
