The pattern is featured in the “Sectional Warping” course with Laura Fry on the School of SweetGeorgia.
Last year, Master Weaver Laura Fry joined us in the SweetGeorgia Studio to film a course that I feel like is so needed in this world. Like many of you who might have stumbled on my videos about using a sectional warp beam on my Leclerc Mira II counterbalance weaving loom here and here, I felt like there was not much information published about how to use a sectional warp beam, how the process works, and what I’m supposed to do at each step.
Figuring out how to set up the sections for warping
Figuring out how to get the sections to the heddles for threading
So we asked Laura to come and teach us the step-by-step process of sectional warping! She drove down from Prince George with all her tools, including her big Leclerc double-wide spool rack (it’s brilliant!).
In Laura’s Sectional Warping course, we explore how sectional warping can help improve speed while warping longer warps, especially in environments where the weaver might experience interruptions. Sectional warping is also really helpful for producing even tension across the width of a wide warp and can do so more evenly than trying to beam with a warping trapeze. Many weavers have told me that once you try sectional warping, you’ll never go back to warping your loom back-to-front or front-to-back!
One of the absolute joys of being able to do this work is to learn from the amazing instructors who share their knowledge with us for the School of SweetGeorgia. Being able to sit next to Laura as she showed me step-by-step, the exact hand movements that she uses to manage the warp sections, tie them off with masking tape, and secure them to the beam was immensely helpful. I don’t know how far I’d have to travel, or what circumstances there would need to exist in order to have an opportunity to sit next to a master weaver to learn the ins and outs of sectional warping. It’s so specific and the knowledge seemed so inaccessible. This is why I’m so excited that this course exists now.
This course allows everyone to have access to the knowledge of sectional warping in weaving, no matter where you live in the world. We filmed it up close so that you could see exactly what’s happening at every stage. The sectional warp beam is massively heavy and it seems incredibly intimidating, but learning to use it has been wonderful for me. Knowing what to look out for at every stage has been so helpful, whether it’s tension issues or uneven building up of the warp sections. I’m up for anything to make the process of weaving more streamlined, straightforward, and joyful as we weave beautiful, even, and effective handwoven cloth.
Using a sectional beam doesn’t mean a single solid colour. Stripes or gradients can be created as well. This is a simple central stripe gradient but other stripes could be developed, such as side stripes or multiple stripes in different sizes. So Laura designed this gradient warp with colours fading in and out from the centre of the warp. Then between Greta, Tabetha, Teresa, Anita, and myself, we wove all different coloured towels simply by swapping out weft colours! The pattern is written for a 10.6 yd/ 9.7 m warp, enough to weave 8 towels. Each towel measured approximately 20″ / 51 cm wide by 30″ / 76 cm long. Of course, you can always weave longer towels or put on more warp yarn to weave more towels.
Seeing as how the holidays are coming up quick, this could be a great way to throw a long warp on your loom and weave off a whole series of towels for gifts. Each can be related, but just a little bit different, simply by switching up the weft yarns. Then you can weave yourself a whole family of “sister” towels!
Sister Tea Towels
Equipment
- 4-shaft Weaving Loom with a minimum 26″ / 66 cm weaving width with sectional beam attachment, tension box, spool rack, storage spools (to wind individual yarn packages), 10-dent reed
- additional weaving tools lease sticks, threading hook, sleying hook, (2) boat shuttles, (2) bobbins or quills, 3/4″ / 2 cm masking tape, scissors
Materials
Warp Yarn
- Maurice Brassard 8/2 unmercerized cotton (1680 yd / 1530 m per ½ lb). For 1″ sections: 28 yarn packages total, with a min of 240 yd each; 20 in Seaton or Slate (MC) and 8 in Baby Pastel Variegated colour (CC). For 2″ sections: 56 yarn packages total, with a min of 240 yd each; 40 in Seaton or Slate (MC) and 16 in Baby Pastel (CC).
Weft Yarn Options
- 560 yd / 512 m Maurice Brassard 8/2 unmercerized cotton (1680 yd / 1530 m per ½ lb), per towel and 25 yd / 22.5 m per pair of hems, in various colours.
- 560 yd / 512 m Maurice Brassard 8/2 unmercerized cotton slub (Flamme) (slub; 1875 yd / 1715 m per 1/2 lb / 227 g cone) as an alternative weft
- 1 cone Gist Duet (600 yards / 548 m per 4 oz / 115 g cone; 55% European Tow Linen, 45% USA-Grown Cotton), per towel in various colours
Instructions
Warping the Loom
- Beam the loom using sectional warping equipment, creating either 1" or 2" sections at a time. Watch the "Sectional Warping" course with Laura Fry to learn how to beam a warp using sectional warping equipment.
Weaving the Towels
- In 8/2 cotton, weave 3" / 7.6 cm of plain weave for the hem. You can use two picks of ‘twill’ to create a line of texture to use as a cut line. You can keep the hems the same as the warp main colours, or choose a hem weft that more closely matches the colour of the towel body weft.
- Weave 36" / 79 cm of plain weave or twill for each towel. Using different weft colours will shift the entire colour of the cloth so that you can have a number of different colours from the same warp.
- Finish the towel with 3"/ 7.6 cm of plain weave. Weave in a cut line to more easily cut the towels apart.
- Weave all the other towels as above. Remove fabric from loom for wet finishing and hemming.
Notes
- Weave Structure: Plain weave or twill for the towel body, plain weave for the hems.
- Warp Length: 10.6 yd / 9.7 m (includes 46″ / 116.8 cm for loom waste & take-up)
- Warp Ends: 480
- Ends Per Inch (EPI): 20
- Picks Per Inch (PPI): 20 ppi at the hems
- Width in Reed: 24″ / 53 cm
- Woven Length: 42″ / 100 cm each towel, including 3″ / 8 cm of hem on each end of the towels.10.6 yd / 9.7 m will weave 8 towels.
