Favorite new dishtowels

There has been significant remodeling work being done in my parents' kitchen, and I had one of those inspirational urges.

It had been on my mind for a few months that I have not made dishtowels in a while.  In fact, I have made hardly any since the first dishtowels I made about three years ago; I made a whole ton then.

But I petered out quickly.  And now it's been a while.

The dishtowel journey of mine began in a hot July three years ago, as I was determined to attempt a waffle weave on my rigid heddle loom.  Of course, I was using a worsted weight thread, and the towel ended up being rather clunky and stringy.  Yet for all my dissatisfaction now, I loved the towel then, and (lo and behold!) it is my most popular pin on Pinterest.

As I said then, "Welcome to the blog that celebrates the art of woven dish towels."  Here was my prize:

Continuing down the timeline, if you follow my journey of dishtowels from three years ago, you will find that I began with the above-pictured waffle weave, moved on to a hounds-tooth pattern, made a new version of waffle weave out of smaller cotton thread (with a new beater to boot), and then proceeded to make a whole bunch more to sell at a craft fair.

Yet I repeat again, three years have passed by.  My inspiration last week brought a moment where I could have stood up in grim determination to cry, "It is time!"

Therefore (getting more to the point of this post) I started yet another dishtowel epic last weekend.  The basics of the dishtowel were as follows:  I wove it on my rigid heddle with my reed of 12.5dpi, using blue and green cotton threads for the warp, and only a single green thread for the weft.  The result was a pretty, heathered sea green.

I started on July 4th, enjoying the warm weather....

...and then I finally finished early in the week....

...and then after hemming my two new dishtowels, I washed them.  Except, I then learned that my hem was not very good when the dishcloth came back out of the washer.  My hems fell apart.

But I am glad to say that dishtowels are allowed to be hemmed twice.  After my mom saw the messy hem, she offered to clean them up with the sewing machine.  I was very pleased when I came home from work the other day to find them with nice, pretty, straight hems.  And how pretty they are now!

I love how these look, wash, and feel!  The double warp with a single weft made the perfect dishtowel; there is depth to the texture.  Also, the unmercerized cotton I have from Valley is so soft and so absorbent.

So here now we see....


One useful dishtowel.

And is that a second pretty one hanging there, looking nice and chic?

Why, yes!  So it is!  Doesn't it just look lovely?  ;)

A very happy project, I have to say.  Do you have any fun cotton/summer crafts that you have been making lately?

Have a good week!