Why Are Some Cotton Towels More Absorbent than Others?

This article is adapted from a Yarn Lab in which Laura Fry experiments with factors that contribute to the absorbency of dishtowels woven using her preferred yarns.—Handwoven editors

Weavers all make dish towels—because they’re an attractive way to experiment with structures or to use up stash, they’re fun (and quick) to weave, and the results are usually welcome as gifts or popular at guild sales.

But we also shouldn’t forget about how well they do their job. In my opinion, towels should be:

• thin and flexible enough to get into tight corners;

• slow to feel wet during use and reasonably quick to dry out before re-use;

• long-lasting—they should not wear out in just a year or two; and

• thirsty and absorbent.

It’s that last point—absorbency—that led me to one of my favorite combinations for towels: a warp of 2/8 ring-spun cotton (3,360 yards per pound) with a weft of cotton flake (3,750 yards per pound), from Maurice Brassard & Fils in Quebec, Canada. (In the U.S., 8/2 cotton (3,360 yards per pound) is similar to the warp yarn, and an 8/2 flake or slub cotton will work for the weft.)

Absorbency and Cotton

Cotton bolls as grown (left) and after processing and spinning (right). Photos by Matt Graves (left) and Joe Coca (right)

Cotton fibers are consistently rated high in absorbency, so why is it that some cotton yarns—and cotton towels, for that matter—are so much less absorbent than others?

In woven fabric, absorbency depends on these factors:

• The yarn. How thin or thick the yarn is, how loosely or tightly it’s spun, and (since we’re talking about cotton) whether it’s mercerized. Mercerization is a chemical process that aids dye absorption and adds a sheen to yarn. Yarns that are mercerized tend to have more saturated colors and their sheen adds a bit of sparkle to handwovens. Unfortunately for dish towels, they’re also less absorbent than unmercerized yarns—although they may become thirstier after a few trips through the wash.

• The woven density. How densely the yarns are sleyed (ends per inch) and woven (picks per inch). The higher the density, the less space there is for the yarns to swell as they absorb water.

• The weave structure. If we think of each intersection as a point of resistance for the absorption of water, then plain weave (which has the maximum number of intersections) will be less absorbent than any other weave structure. Conversely, longer floats mean more of the yarn—and therefore more of the fiber—is available to soak up water. They also may make for a towel that is less durable.

Testing Absorbency

With a goal of maximizing absorbency in the towels I weave, I was curious about the roles that density and weave structure play when woven with my 8/2 cotton yarns.

So I wove samples in four structures and multiple setts: five in plain weave, and three each in 2/2 twill, huck lace, and a waffle-like textured weave. After weaving, I wet-finished the cloth using a small amount of detergent and hot water followed by a cold rinse, and then gave it a hard press. I cut the samples to be about the same size and weighed each one.

Click any image in the gallery to see the caption in full-screen mode.

To test absorbency, I prepared a basin with fairly warm water and a small amount of detergent (Dawn dish soap) to reduce the water’s surface tension, so that the fibers could more readily absorb it. One by one, I laid each sample on the surface of the water and timed how long it took to absorb enough water to sink to the bottom of the basin. I then removed the sample from the basin and weighed it. I subtracted the dry weight of the sample from this new wet weight, and from there figured out roughly how much water each sample had absorbed. My results are below.

Conclusions

Why was my top choice twill even though the huck lace and textured weave towels absorbed more?

As my results demonstrate, huck lace and the textured weave are very thirsty structures because of their longer floats—which may also make them less durable. And depending on your climate, those towels may have lengthy drying times after use.

To make a good towel—one that is flexible, absorbent, and durable—I want to strike a balance between yarn size, weave structure, and sett. Taking into account these trade-offs, my preferred combination with these 8/2 cotton yarns is twill sett at 20 ends per inch.

I wouldn’t use those yarns for plain-weave towels at 15 ends per inch. Based on my results, a towel woven at that fairly open sett would absorb about the same amount of moisture as my preferred twill towels, but the loose sett would have it catching on fork tines during use and it would not wear very well overall.

As you look for your next towel draft, choosing from appealing designs or structures you’d like to weave, don’t forget to consider how the yarn, sett, and weave structure work together to make hard-working and absorbent towels for your kitchen.

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EDITOR’S NOTES

If you’d like to try out Laura’s favorite yarns in your own dish towels, the flake cotton she used as weft is no longer available. Cotton Clouds carries a flake cotton of the same weight—or you can substitute slub cotton from Maurice Brassard & Fils in Canada, or from various yarn companies in the U.S., including Lunatic Fringe Yarns and The Woolery.

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You’ll find Sarah H. Jackson’s Peaceful Rhythm Towels in the May/June 2014 issue of Handwoven. They’re woven in a twill variation using 8/2 cotton and sett at 20 epi/ppi.

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Read the original Yarn Lab in the September/October 2014 issue of Handwoven.

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