Ginny’s Coat of Many Colors Towels

There’s nothing quite like finding the perfect draft for your chosen yarns. It’s as if the heavens part and suddenly your design is born in your head and on your loom. For Susan Szczotka, this happened when she found the Ginny’s Coat draft in Marguerite Porter Davison’s A Handweaver’s Pattern Book. In that draft, she found the perfect way to showcase the Tintes Naturales yarns. Here’s what she had to say about designing her Ginny’s Coat of Many Colors Towels from the Handwoven September/October 2018 issue:

Susan Szczotka’s Ginny’s Coat of Many Colors Towels.

Susan Szczotka’s Statement

For me, the challenge was in using all eight colors from the kit. They are beautiful, but the thought of using them all together in a pleasing way was a bit daunting.

I decided to make the warp stripes more interesting by using the Ginny’s Coat draft from A Handweaver’s Pattern Book by Marguerite Porter Davison. The point-twill sections are clean and bold, whereas the other portion of the draft, which I call “chicken tracks,” is a softer allover pattern. The interesting thing is that, depending on the contrast between the warp and weft colors in the chicken-tracks section, sometimes the “tracks” show up and sometimes they don’t, making a draft with two distinct pattern sections look like it has three sections when the warp stripe color is changed.

You may weave this towel in any variety of colors in warp and weft, but the towel in this project stuck to the rules of our challenge and contains all eight colors of Tintes Naturales in the warp and two of the colors in the weft.

Happy Weaving!

Christina

Project at a Glance

PROJECT TYPE: 4-shaft.

STRUCTURE: Huck lace.

EQUIPMENT: 4-shaft loom, 20" weaving width; 10-dent heddle; 1 shuttle; 2 bobbins.

YARNS: 8/2 unmercerized cotton (3,360 yd/lb; Mayan Hands Dye Project; Cotton Clouds).

OTHER SUPPLIES: Matching sewing thread.

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