Making Tea Towels

I thought perhaps some of you would be interested in the making of tea towels. So here are a few pictures to give you an idea of the steps involved in making these wonderfully soft and absorbent tea towels. I will put a brief explanation under each photo to tell you what is happening.

After I have decided the design of the tea towels, I go to my warping board to wind the warp. The warp consists of the threads that run the length of the tea towels. I usually wind a 5 yard warp that will yield 4 towels plus some extra for a sample of what I have done. The warping board has pegs spaced at a width of 36". I am careful to make a cross at the top of the board where the threads go under and over. This keeps the threads in order when I take the warp to the loom.

 I have taken the warp which consists of 441 threads (each 5 yards long) to the back of the loom. Where the cross was on the warping board, I have put a set of sticks called lease sticks. A lease is another word for a cross. I have also put the back apron rod through the end of the warp.

 Here is a picture of the front of the loom. You can see the bundles of threads laying on the front apron. The orange threads have been tied on the warp in 1 yard increments. This was done when the warp was still on the warping board. The ties make sure that the threads don't slip passed each other.

 The next step is to spread the warp to the width that the towels will be woven at. In this case I will weave at 22". I have 441 threads and each inch will consist of 20 threads. I use a raddle to do the initial spreading. The raddle looks like grill work. It is really a board with nails at 1/2" increments. It is open at the top so that I can lay bundles of 10 threads in each space. After I have all the threads in place I put the top of the beater bar on the raddle so that the threads stay in place. 

 Here is a view from the back of the loom. You can see the raddle still in place at the top of the picture. You can also see the lease sticks still in the warp. I will use the cross later to help with the threading of the heddles. But first I must wind the warp onto the back of the loom. As I wind the threads, I also wind paper in between each revolution. This keeps the threads separated.

 The warp must go on the back beam under tight and even tension. This tension is significant. There is a crank at the side of the loom (sorry, no picture), and after every revolution I walk to the front of the loom and wind 2" sections around a stick so that I can give a great yank on that section of warp. This tightens it on the back beam. After the warp is all the way wound with about 24" hanging at the front of the loom, I am ready to do the threading.

 My loom has four harnesses. You can see the bottom of them in this picture. Look for the 4 horizontal grey bars. On each of these bars are heddels. Each heddle has an eye in the middle of it. The order that these heddles are threaded in is part of what determines the pattern that will be woven. So I put on some nice quiet music (maybe Bach's Goldberg Variations with Glenn Gould) and thread all the 441 threads into the correct heddles.

 Here you can see that all the heddles are threaded and the threads have also been put through the reed. The reed is somewhat like the raddle, except that it is closed both top and bottom. This reed has 10 dents (spaces) per inch. So, in order to get 20 thread ends per inch (epi) I will sley 2 ends per dent.

 Then it is time to tie all the ends to the front apron rod. This must also be done under very even tension or weaving will not go as planned. The orange thread at the front of the weaving will be taken out when the tea towels are done.

 Here you can see the progress of one of the tea towels. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to weave one towel, barring any mistakes or broken threads. What I haven't explained is that under the loom there are a set of treadles. The treadles are tied up to the harnesses in a certain combination. The order that I treadle these treadles also determines the pattern that is woven. When  treadle is depressed ( not a bad kind of depression) some of the threads go up while the rest stay down. This creates an opening, called the shed, through which I can throw the shuttle. After the shuttle has gone through, I bring the beater with reed in it forward and beat the thread into place. Then I press the next treadle and do the same thing again.

 Four washed and finished towels ready to be purchased!

These towels are the same pattern as the brown ones. They were woven to order for my friend, Mita from British Columbia.

If you would like to know more about weaving and you live in my area, feel free to contact me and come and have a look.