An Ode to Handwoven Towels

Handwoven towels, how I love thee! Let me count the ways.

I love thee in all thy forms, from kitchen helper to tea-tray enhancer to bread-basket base. Whether cotton, linen, cottolin, or some other fiber, the yarns used to weave you are a delight on the loom and in the home. For as all weavers know, there is no towel so absorbent as a handwoven towel. From twill to overshot and laces huck and Swedish, you let me explore the many structures of weaving. You are the perfect canvas for me to play with color as I watch warp and weft interlace with every pick. For I know that even if my color experiments are less than beautiful, you are still a towel and you will still be endlessly useful.

In all seriousness, handwoven towels really are the best in so many ways. At this point, all my friends and immediate family have learned to never say, “Oh, that towel is just too pretty to use,” because they have the lecture on why handwoven towels are superior to all other towels memorized. (And I’m happy to say that I’ve convinced at least a couple of them to actually use their towels, rather than letting them languish as mere decorations.)

As I’m getting ready for baby, I’m trying to think ahead to my weaving in those first few months. I have small looms ready to go for quick projects and I’m in the process of winding the warp for the baby blanket that will go on my four-shaft loom, but perhaps most important for my sanity, I’m putting a warp for towels on my eight-shaft loom. I love weaving towels more than anything else, so that warp will be my therapy after the baby is born. When I need some peaceful, pressure-free weaving, I will head to that loom and weave a towel using any color or treadling I fancy. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like pure bliss!

So if you’re looking for a wonderful, relaxing project to weave, might I suggest you try a set of towels?