The Color of Cotton

28 Tuesday Jul 2015

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Twill Towel in Naturally Colored Cotton

Before my weaving days, my exposure to cotton was limited to one color: white. White t-shirts, white sheets, white hotel towels. What color there was came from dyes. And many times, that color was fugitive—over time, red turned to pink, navy turned to powder blue, and yellow faded to cream.

Then I learned to weave and of course, needed yarn. I love shopping for yarn! There are so many different fibers, different spins, and hues to choose from. And that’s when I discovered that cotton is also available in colors that come from nature!

Kitchen Towel in Naturally Colored Cotton

Cotton has always grown in a variety of browns, tans, greens, and even reds, and many peoples over time have spun and woven beautiful naturally colored textiles. It has a shorter staple(fiber) length than white cotton and produces a softer cloth than white cotton. And the amazing thing to me is that the color deepens with washing. I wove a series of hand towels several years ago and had a small piece left over which I kept and use as a basket liner. This little towel is still the same soft green and brown as when I wove it.

The white cotton we are familiar with today was bred in response to the Industrial Revolution. The development of inexpensive dyes and improvements in spinning and weaving manufacturing led growers to breed just that one variety. Colored cotton became a novelty until the early 1980’s when a small number of cotton breeders began developing the line again.

Kitchen Towel in Naturally Colored Cotton Twill

Remembering the towels I wove earlier, I decided to weave another run in naturally colored cotton. Cotton is a great fiber for towels, very absorbent, durable and easy to care for. And twill is my go-to weave structure for just about everything. The towels are off the loom now and I’m almost finished hemming. I’m happy with the feel of the towels and the warm colors of the cotton. And I know they won’t fade!

Color Study Continued

01 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by jeanweaves in Color, Towels

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Color, Cotton, creative inspiration, Weaving

Kitchen Towel in Colors and Checks

Continuing last week’s color contemplations, I wove on, and now the warp is finished and off the loom.

I had wondered if the colors would work. I chose UKI’s Scarab, Quince, Duck, and Lavender. For the record, “Duck” is what I would call a muted turquoise; “Scarab” is what I would call a soft apple green, and “Quince” looks like peach more than orange. And for the most part, I think these colors did play well together. They are similar in value but do come from different regions on the color wheel.

Kitchen Towel Stripes and Lavender

In weaving, it’s not just about how colors will look next to each other, but also how the eye will “read” them from a distance when weft crosses warp. In that respect, two of my choices didn’t work as well as the others. When crossing, Scarab and Duck simply greyed each other out. I was careful not to place them side by side in the warp, but when I used one of them as weft, it necessarily crossed the warp stripe of the other.

There are always surprises. I’m surprised at how the Scarab pops here. On the cone, it is a soft green, but with the other colors, it fairly jumps off the fabric. And depending on the lighting and what it’s next to, the Quince make look gold or pink.

On one pair of towels I used a denim blue weft, a color I thought would recede and allow the warp stripes to stand out. It did just that, as well as softening the whole look in a nice way.

Color is such a subjective thing. What pleases my eye may jar yours. What is soothing or cheerful to one may be distracting and brash to another. While manufacturers may set their “Color of the Year” and expect us to follow their lead, sometimes I just want to break out in my own melody and scheme.

Kitchen Towel Stripes and Denim

I have only looked through the window of the whole study of color theory. Someday, I may walk right in and commit to a more thorough exploration, but for now, I note what seems to work on the loom and go on from there. This was a fun project and having made notes on the results, I will continue to learn and continue to be surprised.

What color experiments are you working on?

“The Good One”

11 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by jeanweaves in Planning, Towels, Yarn Stash

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Color, Cotton, Handweaving, Towels

Cotton Lace Kitchen Towel

One of my sons-in-law made me laugh recently. Here’s the story.

Many years ago, more years than I’d like to admit, I decided to make Roman shades for my daughters’ room. I had some commercial fabric with red and blue flowers on a pale pink background. That was my starting point. I chose yarn to match those colors and chose lace as the weave structure. I wound the warp and started weaving, but the colors just didn’t “sing” the way I had envisioned them. Being a new weaver, I thought they would grow on me. Not so. After 11 yards, the cloth came off the loom and still, no “song.” I was so disenchanted that I folded the fabric and stowed it away. The curtains never came to be.

Fast forward to this past winter when I decided to clear some of my stash. At the time, I was thinking about using yarn that had been on the shelf too long, but my curtain fabric still haunted my linen closet.

Because I had used cotton in a lace weave, this fabric was actually a good candidate for towels. So I put scissors to fabric, cut the yardage into several towels and gave them out to my family. They aren’t pretty–the colors still don’t sing after all these years–but they work as towels.

And this is how my son-in-law made me laugh–my daughter has been using her towel and on laundry day, put it in the wash. Her husband happened to be washing up in the kitchen and looking for something to dry his hands, asked her, “Where’s the good one?”

One weaver’s failed project is another family’s “good one!”

Now I am working on towels in the same weave structure, but with colors that work much better than my original ones. Can you hear the song?

jeanweaves

~ Jean Williams, Handweaver

Tag Archives: Cotton

The Color of Cotton

Color Study Continued

“The Good One”