On My Loom

I have kitchen towels on my loom.  I'm working on the 4th towel now.  My granddaughter put the teddy bear on the loom when she was over.  It's funny because the bear is the Harrisville Designs bear, Harris, from the Harrisville Designs knitting kit, and he's sitting on the Harrisville loom. 

 The yarn for the towels is 3/2 cotton, and the sett is 15 EPI in a 10-dent reed threaded (1,2) repeat.  I warped 6 yards of white, which should be enough for 6 towels.  The pattern is Finnish Bird's Eye from the book, "A Handweaver's Pattern Book," by Marguerite Porter Davison.  The first towel is blue with a white warp. This is pattern II of Finnish Bird's Eye.

The second towel is yellow.  This is pattern V of Finnish Bird's Eye.

The 3rd towel is red, and the pattern is IV of Finnish Bird's Eye.

The 4th towel is burgundy, and the pattern is III of Finnish Bird's Eye.

Once they're all finished, I'll zigzag stitch between the towels, cut them apart, hem, and wash them. It's fun weaving different patterns and different colors for the towels.  I use size 5/2 cotton for the hems, which will be turned twice and sewn. Using a finer yarn helps keep the hems from flaring out.  Sometimes I use plain weave for the hems, and sometimes I just use a part of the pattern or a basic twill pattern. 

Notes for woven towels: 1350 yards per cone. 270 ends x 6 = 1620 yards, 1 cone + 270 yards. 270 ends + 2 floats, 18" wide. 1" hems. Each towel: 26" plus 1" hems on each side. 2 floating selvages added and weighted on back. Heddle count: 1-54, 2-54, 3-81, 4-81. 30" per towel plus loom waste. 30 x 6 = 180 + 36" loom waste = 216"= 6 yards for warp.  Tie up blank squares, but I convert it to regular twill tie up treadling: 1,2; 2,3; 3,4; 4,1. Threading: 4,3,2,1,4,3,4,1,2,3 repeat across and add floating selvages.. 
Treadling Converted:
I: 1,4,3,2
II: 1,4,3,2, 1,4,1, 2,3,4,1,2
III: 1,4,3,2, 3,4,3  2,3,4,1,  2,3,4,1, 4,3,4,  1,4,3,2
IV: 1,4,3,2, 1,4,3,2, 1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4
V: 1,4,3,2, 1,4,3,2, 3,4,1, 2,3,4
VI: 1,4,1, 2,3,2