Last summer, the Weavers Guild of Minnesota and the American Swedish Institute collaborated on a weaving workshop with faculty from the acclaimed Sätergläntan Institute for Craft and Handwork in Sweden. (See previous blog posts for details. ) The Guild’s Education Manager Betsy Konop asked the Scandinavian Weavers Group if we would be interested in weaving towels with leftover yarn from the workshop to sell in the Guild shop to support our educational programs.

We chose the “Viking Twill” draft by Gunnel Oresjo, first published in the 2009 September/October issue of Handwoven. The editorial team at Handwoven gave us their kind permission to use the draft for fundraising purposes. (Search the Handwoven website for the draft.)

The warp was wound with bright primary colors, similar to what would have been available from natural dyes in Scandinavia in Viking times. The original draft is for a simple 2/2 broken twill, but Weavers Guild instructor Donna Hanson generously created many more variations in PixeLoom for us to try. (Donna’s towel-weaving classes are perennial favorites at the Guild.)

The warp uses Bockens 16/2 cotton, and each weaver brought in weft yarn from their stash, including cotton, linen, and blends. It was inspiring to see how many variations were created using the different colors, patterns, and textures.

Some of the towels have a crowning touch—Swedish-style handing bands using the same Bockens yarn. These were woven by the Weavers Guild band-weaving interest group, affectionately known as the Banditos.

Fifteen weavers wove towels, and Beth Detlie heroically kept all of us scheduled and organized. Mary Skoy generously washed and hemmed all the towels.

The towels are currently available for sale in the Weavers Guild shop. Meanwhile, a second warp has already been wound and will soon be on the loom.

Many thanks to our first batch of weavers! Judy Larson, Nancy Ebner, Robbie LaFleur, Auden O’Connell, Jan Johnson, Mary Skoy, Beth Detlie, Lisa Torvik, Brenda Gavin Chadwick, Karen Holmes, Lisa-Anne Bauch, Peg Hanson, along with guild staff Betsy Konop (Education Manager) and Jasmyn Hinton (Retail & Administrative Associate.) Special thanks to Hopsy for helping to warp the loom!