Lime Tea Towels and the Math involved
Posted on September 22, 2013 by kathy Now reposted Feb. 6, 2017.
My next tea towel project came from a book “Favorite Scandinavian Projects to Weave” by Tina Ingells. On page 61 is a lovely Lime Hand Towel designed by Brigetta Johansson.
In her project she used 12/1 linen with an EPI ( ends per inch ) of 35. She used 786 threads to produce a 20.5″ width in her towels.
I wanted a wider towel and I needed to use some of my stash. So many things to think about. I used 2/10 organic natural cotton and 2/8 lime green cotton. I had to adjust the pattern and use a different EPI. I used 25 EPI and 626 threads to give me a 25″ towel. There was a lot of math involved. So I wanted to show non weavers what might be involved. I developed an equation to show you how much thought is put into a project even when it is written out for you in a book.
70 + 6 (3(6 +2 ) + 6 + 46) + 3( 6+2 ) + 6 + 70= 626
Both 70 and 46 need to be divisible by 8 + 6 extra threads , so 64 +6 and 40 +6 .
The total number has to give me a tea towel width of 25 “ which is wider than the project in the book.
So I had to play around with either less green stripes or less white blocks. I chose less threads in the white blocks. The green 6s’ in the equation represent the green stripes.
Then I had to figure out how many heddles I needed for each of the 4 shafts and then divide this in half and move them over to start my threading.
Before all this starts you need to figure out how much yardage you want and add loom waste at each end plus account for shrinkage usually about 10 to 15%.
I'm going to use this same equation and weave some Red and Grey tea towels.
Posted on September 22, 2013 by kathy Now reposted Feb. 6, 2017.
My next tea towel project came from a book “Favorite Scandinavian Projects to Weave” by Tina Ingells. On page 61 is a lovely Lime Hand Towel designed by Brigetta Johansson.
In her project she used 12/1 linen with an EPI ( ends per inch ) of 35. She used 786 threads to produce a 20.5″ width in her towels.
I wanted a wider towel and I needed to use some of my stash. So many things to think about. I used 2/10 organic natural cotton and 2/8 lime green cotton. I had to adjust the pattern and use a different EPI. I used 25 EPI and 626 threads to give me a 25″ towel. There was a lot of math involved. So I wanted to show non weavers what might be involved. I developed an equation to show you how much thought is put into a project even when it is written out for you in a book.
70 + 6 (3(6 +2 ) + 6 + 46) + 3( 6+2 ) + 6 + 70= 626
Both 70 and 46 need to be divisible by 8 + 6 extra threads , so 64 +6 and 40 +6 .
The total number has to give me a tea towel width of 25 “ which is wider than the project in the book.
So I had to play around with either less green stripes or less white blocks. I chose less threads in the white blocks. The green 6s’ in the equation represent the green stripes.
Then I had to figure out how many heddles I needed for each of the 4 shafts and then divide this in half and move them over to start my threading.
Before all this starts you need to figure out how much yardage you want and add loom waste at each end plus account for shrinkage usually about 10 to 15%.
I'm going to use this same equation and weave some Red and Grey tea towels.