Brew-tiful Morning Towels: Contrast in Color and Weave
Posted by Jodi Ybarra on
Brew-tiful Morning Towels: Contrast in Color and Weave
There’s something magical about the quiet stillness of a morning, the soft glow of sunlight streaming through the window, and the warmth of your favorite mug in hand.
Our Brew-tiful Morning Towels are designed to complement those serene moments, bringing a sense of calm and grounded beauty to your kitchen. Crafted in warm, earthy tones, these towels evoke the comfort of freshly brewed coffee or a steaming cup of tea, creating a connection to the simple pleasures of your morning ritual. Let their texture and color wrap your space in cozy charm, inviting you to savor the peace of a new day.
This Brew-tiful Morning Towel project is a delightful exploration of contrast and design, using a combination of houndstooth and color-and-weave. With each towel set featuring two different base colors, you’ll see how you can transform your weaving in unique and surprising ways.
The Palette: Warm, Earthy Tones
Both sets of Brew-tiful Morning Towels share a warm, cozy color palette that feels like a comforting cup of coffee or tea. Light brown and cocoa bring depth, while peach and rust add brightness and vibrancy. These colors create a harmonious blend perfect for weaving this eye-catching pattern. However, the real magic happens when we pair these hues with different base colors: natural or black.
The Contrast Experiment
This project highlights the transformative power of your base color choice. By weaving one set with a natural base and the other with a black base, you’ll discover how these neutrals influence the overall look of your towels:
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Natural Base: Gentle and light, the natural base lets the warm tones shine with a subtle glow. The houndstooth pattern feels timeless and understated, while the color-and-weave sections exude a gentle elegance.
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Black Base: Bold, dramatic, and modern, the black base deepens the warm tones, making them appear richer and more intense. The houndstooth pattern becomes striking and graphic, while the color-and-weave sections pop with a contemporary flair.
Pattern: Houndstooth Meets Color-and-Weave
The Brew-tiful Morning Towels bring together two classic weaving techniques:
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Houndstooth: This iconic pattern is perfect for showcasing the contrast between the base color and alternating warm tones. On the natural base, houndstooth feels traditional and soft, while on the black base, it’s crisp and striking.
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Color-and-Weave: This technique plays with light and dark threads to create intricate textures and patterns. The interplay of peach, rust, and cocoa with the base colors results in variations that draw the eye and add visual interest to the towels.
The Brew-tiful Morning Towels are a perfect way to play with color, texture, and contrast in your weaving. Whether you prefer the soft elegance of the natural base or the bold drama of the black base, these towels are sure to add beauty and personality to your home. Plus, they make excellent gifts for the coffee (or tea) lovers in your life!
Brew up your creativity and start weaving today—you’ll love the results!
Let's Weave Brew-tiful Morning Towels!
- Gather your supplies ~ We've supplied a pattern in this blog to help you get started. The pattern will give you the yarn amounts, weaving width, suggested sett and finishing techniques to weave two towels.
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We make it easy! Our Brew-tiful Morning Towel Kits make gathering your supplies easy. These kits include all the yarns you'll need whether you choose a natural or the bolder black background. There are two kits to choose from or you can choose the bundle to weave both the neutral and bold towels!
- Join the Cotton Clouds Weaving Community on Facebook so that you can share your questions, pictures and accomplishments.
- Let's Weave together! I'm here for you every step of the way!
Brew-tiful Morning Towels
Espress-Oh! or Cream & Caramel
Weave structure: plain weave/houndstooth with color and weave
Equipment needed: Rigid Heddle or 4-Shaft Loom; 18.2” weaving width; 10 dent reed; 6 shuttles.
Warp Yarns: Aurora Earth 8/2 Cottons. Natural or Black (base color) 700 yds, Light Brown (color A) 250 yds, Peach (color B) 180 yds, Rust (color C) 180 yds, Light Cocoa (color D) 180 yds.Weft Yarns: Aurora Earth 8/2 Cottons. Natural or Black (base color) 500 yds, Light Brown (color A) 200 yds, Peach (color B) 160 yds, Rust (color C) 160 yds, Light Cocoa (color D) 160 yds.
Total warp ends: 182 doubled ends (364 threads). 92 Natural, 30 Light Brown, 20 Light Cocoa, 20 Rust, 20 Peach.
Warp length: 3 ½ yards (126”), allows 36” for tying on and loom waste.
Setts: 10 epi (doubled ends); 10 ppi (double strand)
Finished Dimensions: three towels ” x ” hemmed.
Other supplies: matching sewing thread for hems
Available as a kit from Cotton Clouds, Inc.
Rigid Heddle Instructions:
Warping the Loom
Set up your loom to direct warp a length of 3 ½ yards (126”). The warp threads are doubled warping two threads in each slot and two in each hole. Two threads equal one pass to the warping peg.
If you have received this project as a kit from Cotton Clouds, you will have two cones of each color. Use the larger of the cones to warp your loom. Then you will have two remaining cones to wind your shuttles double strand.
Fast warping tip: Warp all natural threads by warping a slot and a hole, then skip a slot and a hole. The natural threads will take up 46 slots and 46 holes. If doing it this way, be careful to skip every other slot and hole.
Block AWind the warp onto the back beam and tie the yarns in small sections onto the front beam. Tighten your warp so that it’s evenly tensioned.
Preparing the ShuttlesWind five shuttles double strand with base color and the four colors of Light Brown, Light Cocoa, Rust, and Peach. Wind one more shuttle single strand base color for hems.
WeavingWeft Order:
Repeat Block A-D three times, then weave one more of Block A.
Weave a few picks of scrap yarn or use a cardboard spacer and continue the next towel the same as the first. When you have finished weaving all three towels, weave a few rows with scrap yarn before cutting yarns off loom.
Multi-Shaft Instructions:
Winding the Warp
Set up your warping board to wind a 3 ½ yard warp.
The warp threads are doubled ends so you will need to wind two threads to equal one end. It's easier to understand if you think about each color section as a block.
Block Arepeat five times for a total of 40 threads.
Block Crepeat five times for a total of 40 threads.
Block DThe weft is doubled. You can wind each of your weft colors on stick shuttles double strand or use a double bobbin boat shuttle.
Weaving:With single strand base color (natural or black) weave 1½” for hem.
The weft order will be the same as the warp order alternating two picks color then two picks base color. The base color (natural or black) will not be cut throughout the entire towel. Use the split ply method when changing colors after each color repeat.
Weft Order:I hope you enjoy this adventure in contrast weaving!
Our Brew-tiful Towels are available as a kit!
Order your kit today!
Thank you for weaving with Cotton Clouds!
Jodi Ybarra
Cotton Clouds, Inc
