American Maid Sampler Kit

We created our line of American Maid™ naturally colored yarns in 2011.  My how time has flown!  These soft, naturally colored cotton yarns are still one of our favorite yarns for towels, blankets, and clothing.  Join us for a trip through the way-back machine as we look at what Katzy wrote in 2016 about weaving with our American Maid™ Sampler kit.

AM-Sampler-Plainweave-and-cones

by Katzy Luhring

Try a sample of American Maid yarns!

American Maid™ Yarns, get their color from the cotton plant's genes rather than from the dyepot.  The yarns made from this lint are unique because the colors get darker over time rather than fading.  Additionally, with a couple tablespoons of baking soda in a sink full of hot water, the colors darken and show their true colors.

These yarns are available in green, brown and white yarns from sustainably grown cotton lint.  We have a dark and light brown (light brown made by blending brown lint with natural white lint), a dark and light green (the green yarns are made by blending green lint with natural white lint), and the white lint spun into its own beautifully creamy, natural white color.  Check out our sampler kit of these yarns:  1.5 oz cones of each of 5 colors of yarn in all the sizes of yarn that we have available.

Rigid Heddle Warping

I set out on a journey to figure out what to weave with the amount of yarn in an American Maid™ sampler kit.  As a way to get a quick sample, I chose to use a rigid heddle loom.  I had never woven on rigid heddle looms until 2015 and have been pleasantly surprised by what these little looms have to offer.

The first benefit of using a rigid heddle loom is very little loom waste.  This is perfect for samplers...we all hate to look at the thrums from the floor loom and wonder what to do with them. Granted, you can't put on a 14-yard warp onto a rigid heddle loom, but you can put on enough yarn for 2 towels or 4 napkins.  And you can do it quickly and even if your kids or cats interrupt you, the task doesn't take long.

American Maid Sampler

Warp that Cricket Loom!

Using the yarn from an 8/2 sampler kit, I warped up 85" on the 15" Schacht Cricket Loom with stripes of the dark brown, dark green, light brown, light green all separated by natural white, using a 10-dent reed.

This would be enough warp for two towels or at least 3 napkins.

Double the Threads in the Heddle

Because the 8/2 yarn is thin, I doubled it to get an overall sett of 10 doubled ends per inch.  This sett is just right for an 8/2 yarn on the rigid heddle loom.

When you warp a rigid heddle loom using the direct warping method and you are doubling the threads, you simply go through both the slots and the holes with a loop during the warping process, so each doubled end is treated like one end during the warping and weaving process. No need to rethread half the threads!   I then just wound the warp onto the back beam, tied up to the front beam, and was ready to weave.  All in less than an hour!

For multi-harness weavers, you could sett this 8/2 cotton yarn at 20 ends per inch, and use a basket weave tie up and treadling to get the same fabric as I got using the rigid heddle loom.  Just remember to add some additional warp for loom waste.

Rigid Heddle Napkin as a Gamp
American Maid Napkin, White Weft

 

The final napkin was woven again as a gamp and woven with a 5/1 pickup pattern.

Weaving Napkins...Sample #1

Now for fun part!  Weaving!

The first go round on this project, I wove napkins...the first was woven in plain weave as a gamp (of course, where else do lunatics start but with a gamp?).  The hems were woven with single strands of the 8/2 cotton and the body of the napkin woven with the 8/2 yarn doubled to match the warp.  Beginning with the dark brown, then a white stripe, and proceeding through the warp colors in order, with the ambition of making the squares of color approximately square.

 

Then for the next napkin, I got out a pickup stick and Jane Patrick's book "The Weaver's Idea Book: Creative Cloth on a Rigid Heddle Loom".  Using a 3/1 lace pickup pattern with white for the weft, wove 15" to make the napkin square overall.

Gamp Napkins with 5/1 Floats

Off to the bath!

Once the napkins were off the loom they had their very first bath in the sink with some soap, hot water from the tap and a couple tablespoons of baking soda.

Wow, the water was really dirty...oh yeah, this was the yarn's very first bath!  No water processing is involved in the yarn's journey from the cotton field to the loom.  No wonder the wash water was dirty on the first trip through the bath, I was literally washing off the dust from the cotton fields.  However, by the time the napkins came out of the rinse water, the wash water was nice and clear!

Then a quick wrap up in a clean, lint free towel to squeeze out some of the excess water, and into a warm dryer for 20 minutes.  My oh my!  The colors have changed, and they are beautiful, soft and I would just like to roll around in the fabric.

Analysis time:

The plain weave napkin shows the colors nicely, and the gamp effect makes a really nice napkin. Plain weave is a very sturdy fabric...great for napkins. The 3/1 lace on the second napkin creates a great texture for the cloth. Perhaps a bit thick for napkins...this would be a lovely towel.

The 5/1 lace is my least favorite:

The floats, especially the warp floats on the reverse side are too big for a napkin, in my opinion. I would probably get my fingers or a ring caught in them, at some time.  And I didn't plan the floats to mesh with the color changes.  I would have to do some planning if I wanted to use that pattern for a plaid fabric.

Sample #2 - Hand Towels

I liked the fabric that came from the 3/1 lace pattern so much and thought the weight of the fabric would make perfect hand towels.

In an attempt to use as much of the yarn in the sampler kit without going over, I decided to put on another 85" warp, and make two towels.  Let's make one towel a plaid, and weave one towel striped.  I would have liked to make a striped towel using only the white yarn for weft, but there isn't quite enough yarn on the mini cone to accomplish that.  Each 1.5 oz cone of 8/2 cotton has about 300 yards on it.  With an 84" warp and all the colors separated by white, I wouldn't have quite enough white to do a full towel.

After spending a bit of time with a pencil, paper and my calculator, I figured I could do a mostly white towel with a border of light green on either side.  There is plenty of yarn for that!

Hems again woven with single strand in plain weave to make the hems lie flat.  The single strand does get packed in a bit more than the doubled yarn.

As soon as I started in with the doubled yarn for the body of the towel, I switched to the 3/1 lace pattern with the pick-up stick.  In the end, I had plenty of warp to do two towels each about 25" long, plus a little warp left over to make a spa cloth. That is another funny story!

I used the same wet finishing as before: gave the towels a bath in the sink, with baking soda and trip through the dryer.

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8/2 American Maid, Rigid Heddle Towel, White and Light Green Weft
8/2 American Maid, Rigid Heddle Towels

MMMM...Love these towels!

These towels are fabulous.  Perfect hand towels with a wonderful texture.  Finished size on the towels about 12.25"x 21.5".

Want instructions for these towels?  Click here to purchase a downloadable pdf of the instructions.

I am now working on what you can do with the sampler kit on a floor loom.  Off to big loom land!

 

Originally published April 28, 2016

 

2 thoughts on “American Maid Sampler Kit”

  1. As a beginning weaver I have experimented with several yarn options, but I kept coming back to this beautiful sampler kit. This time I purchased the half pound spools , but I still plan on making these amazing towels and napkins!! Elegantly simple!

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