Skullery Towels

Designer Margery Erickson enjoys designing and weaving border motifs to use with her hand-dyed warps. This time around, she worked up a border of skulls at the request of a friend. Enjoy this subscriber bonus project from Handwoven Fall 2024.

Skullery Towels by Margery Erickson

For several years, I have been designing and weaving various motifs inspired by a sheep pattern from a past issue of Handwoven. After seeing my woven pumpkins, candles, rabbits, and jack-o’-lanterns, a friend asked if I could weave skulls as well—they are a favorite of her daughter. Considering that skulls can be found on everything from T-shirts and jewelry to tattoos, jackets, and socks, she’s not the only one who likes them. Fortunately, one of my looms just happened to be warped with the right threading, and I started designing skulls and weaving samples.

I also like to combine my love of weaving figures with my love of hand-dyeing yarns. I delight in playing with dyes and watching how the colors evolve. These towels were samples woven using one of my hand-dyed warps—you can see the color shading and variation in the finished towels.

A close-up look at the summer and winter border motif of the Skullery Towels.

Project at a Glance and PDF Link

STRUCTURE
Plain weave with summer and winter.

EQUIPMENT
8-shaft loom, 21" weaving width; 10-dent reed; 3 shuttles; 4 bobbins.

YARNS
Warp: 8/2 cotton (3,360 yd/lb; Valley Yarns; WEBS), #8176 Natural, hand-dyed, 1,117 yd. Note: The warp for the towel shown was dyed using Dharma Fiber Reactive Dye #31 Dark Green. If you prefer to use a commercially dyed solid warp, Margery suggests choosing darker shades of the Valley Yarns 8/2 cotton, such as #2625 Ink Blue, #5949 Black Forest, or #6995 Purple.
Weft: Plain weave: 8/2 cotton, #8540 Shale, 584 yd. Pattern: 5/2 pearl cotton (2,100 yd/lb; Valley Yarns; WEBS), #8001 White, 70 yd; #8990 Black, 16 yd. Tabby: 10/2 pearl cotton (4,200 yd/lb; Valley Yarns; WEBS), #8990 Black, 92 yd.
Note: Margery used 10/2 unmercerized cotton from her stash when she wove these towels, but she suggests the Valley Yarns 10/2 pearl cotton listed here as a good substitute.