February 2021 – Jane Stafford Textiles

Mai-wha-ta Lovely Towel

Maiwa Fundraiser for the Artisan Alliance of Jawaja

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Hey….remember that marvellous Stash Crackle Pop pattern from Sharon Broadley…..well…..we’ve got another one 🙂 Sharon is an ardent weaver, lover and supporter of Maiwa, and that girl can take any towel warp and turn it into a luxurious shawl with a mere change of sett and weft yarn. We are so thrilled to present the Mai-Wha-ta Lovely Towel Pattern. And…..you can thank her daughter Lee for the name.

“I began very literally. I typed “helpmaiwa” into the Name Draft tool in Fiberworks and then played around with various options until I came up with a design I liked. Wanting to mimic the intricate Jacquard head borders on traditional Indian textiles, I threaded the design into 3 areas and left the remainder of the warp in plainweave. The colours come from the saturated colour palette that reminds me of India.” Sharon Broadley

This pattern is written for 8 towels and 1 shawl. The 8 towels are woven at 20 EPI and then, after the towels have been woven, the warp is cut and re-sleyed at 16 EPI for the plain weave and 24 EPI for the twill, making the twill section more warp predominant. The pattern could have been woven on 6 shafts but Sharon used 8 so she didn’t run out of heddles on her first 2 shafts…..that’s thinking ahead 🙂 The plain weave sections are threaded on 1-4 and the twill section is on 5-8.

So…..imagine a mostly plain weave towel with 3 bands of twill running vertically from top to bottom. The entire warp is made of 8/2 cotton.

In this project we have 2 different weave structures threaded side by side. The plain weave section will have greater take-up in the warp than the twill sections. There is an interlacement between every single warp thread in the plain weave areas while, in the twill areas, the interlacement is between every 2 threads. This causes tension differences between the 2 areas. The twill section may feel loose or grow in length a little bit due to the take-up differential. If you raise shafts 5 to 8 with your hand you will be able to separate the twill sections of your warp. Standing at the back of the loom insert a 1/4” rod or dowel under those raised warp threads and then slide it down to the bottom of your warp beam – see the picture below. This is a simple way of dealing with tension differentials in warps. You may need to add additional weight to the rod if you find the twill sections becoming too long. Add your weights to both ends of your rod.

You will also notice that as the cloth winds onto the cloth beam, there is a differential in the buildup. Don’t worry about it.

Yarns & Colours Used for the Warp:
1 cone each of 8/2 cotton in Purple, Royal, Fuchsia, Cherry, & Turmeric

Towel Wefts:
All warp colours were used plus Orange, Apricot & Pale Limette. Remember…this is a great stash busting pattern as you only need approximately 3 full bobbins to weave a towel.

Shawl Weft:
One skein of JST Hand-dyed 20/2 Silk, some suggested colours are Coral Flame, Shameless, Starfish, Buddha Berry, Dragon Fruit or any colour that grabs your heart and reminds you of India.

So there you have it….another amazing pattern…..more great learning…..and a giant huge THANK YOU to Sharon. Ya gotta love it…..”helpmaiwa”

Jane

You can follow Sharon on Instagram @colour.woven

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Recently I was on Soufilled Sisterhood Podcast with host Nicole Burguess speaking about my favourite topic weaving! No, her podcast is not a weaving or fiber arts podcast, but I shared with her listeners how I got interested in weaving, giving myself permission to play more with my weaving, and my goal of reaching more people with my teaching. This inspired Nicole to incorporate some of those mindsets and beliefs into her business. So whether you are a creator, entrepreneur, lover of yarn, or curious about my path in textiles click here to listen and read the show notes.