Weaving the Tessellation Triangles Towels–Blog Post
Michele fell in love with Sheila O’Hara’s elegant Tessellating Triangles Towels as shown in Handwoven Magazine’s Spring 2024 issue. As Michele jumped right into the weaving, she realized that she needed a different way of thinking about how to weave the towels than what was in the magazine. Here are Michele’s insights into how she wove these elegant tessellating towels designed by Sheila.
By Michele B.
I loved Sheila’s Tessellating Triangles Towels when I saw them at CNCH in Rohnert Park, and I jumped right in to winding the warp. But, once the loom was threaded and it came time to do the weaving, I struggled to see how the number of picks of a color related to the pattern blocks. So, I broke things down to Block Units and (sound the trumpets) the weaving became logical ,and easy to treadle accurately and without stress. I want to share the charts that I made to make weaving these towels so easy.
Blocks Rock!
As I was first looking at the towel draft, I realized that the towels are woven using an Atwater Bronson Lace draft. This weave structure lends itself to clear and easy blocks. With 8-shafts there are 6 possible blocks that either ascend or descend to make the points of those delightful triangles. So far so good with the theory. I like blocks and block theory may sound hard, but it makes things understandable when you break it into units. But then Sheila added 7 colors and a Skeleton Tie-Up to the mix in the pattern, and my brain went tilt.
When you are Confused, Make a Chart!
After a few deep breaths and a cup of coffee, I came back to the design table. Time to chart everything out. I labeled the Blocks A – F, the Treadles 1-8 and the Colors 1-7. Here are the charts that I came up with. If you would like to download these files, click here for the Color and Block Order Chart, and here for the Treadling Order Chart.
Sitting at the Loom
While weaving the towels, I had the Color and Block Order chart mounted near the loom beside the Treadling Blocks Chart. As I worked through the Color and Block Order Chart to weave each towel, I used a post it note to keep track of where I was in each treadling block as I was weaving.
Treadling Forward and Reverse
Keep in mind, when the treadling order is reversed, F-A, the treadles are still woven in the same top down order: Treadle 1, Treadle 2 and a buddy, Treadle 3 and a buddy, Treadle 2 and a buddy, Treadle 3 and a buddy again and the Treadle 2. A and F are a bit different since Treadle 2 doesn’t get a buddy in Block A and Treadle 1 replaces Treadle 3 and a buddy in Block F. This is a great illustration of why our seemingly capricious convention where we use letters to designate blocks and numbers for shafts and treadles makes so much sense.
I wove one towel in the Sunlight colorway then one in the Moonlight colorway and love them both. We made a yarn collection weave two towels of each of these colorways. Click here to see the collection.
When I realized each towel takes less than 100 yards of weft per color, it made me realize that weaving these towels would be a great way to use up left over yarns. I lined up dozens of possible colorways. Perhaps I will try a set of colors in the blue range (maybe call it Skylight?) Maybe I will try the Moonlight colors from dark to light instead of dark to light. Or I could use 13 of the Tints and Tones colors from our Tubular Spectrum™ mercerized cotton yarns using dark to light or warm to cool or around the color wheel. So many possibilities.
For now, hard as it is I need to walk away from my loom. It is time to head to Complex Weavers Seminars and Convergence 2024. Maybe I’ll come back from Kansas with a prairie inspired colorway. And next time I’ll put on longer warp…