Swedish Weaving: Hand Towels

Wanting a break from my knitting, I turned to the 

Stjärnljus 

pattern in The Handpicked Collection 3. 

I dug out a piece of Huckaback towelling I had in my stash. I have a couple of large pieces of Huckaback, but an oddment of white, cut in half and hemmed, made 2 decent size hand towels, slightly wider and shorter than the one in the illustration but quite serviceable. 

I also had plenty of green DMC Perle 5 cotton, and chose 3 with consecutive numbers, not the same as in the pattern, but close enough. 

Swedish weaving is hugely pleasing to do - rhythmic, quick, geometric and restful. The hardest bit is working out where to start. I started the first one a bit lower than I needed to. That's not a problem, but I corrected that in the second one. It's quite a clever pattern, maximising the run you can do with each colour,while providing a dimensional effect.

I worked the 2 towels over 2 days. I made a few mistakes, undoing them before I got too far. I also cheated a bit after miscalculating the centre of the first one (by about 2 stitches, small, but enough to show).I added tape tabs so they can be hung from hooks if required.

I use hand towels a lot so these may end up in my guest bathroom if I don't find another home for them. They do, however, make very good gifts.

The first embroidery project I ever did (as far as I can remember) was a Huck hand towel in Grade 3 at school. I still have it (not, admittedly, in daily use). It’s smaller than the current ones, and, in spite of soaking and washing, stained.

It's a bit of a testimony to that NSW sewing curriculum (every Grade 3 girl in the State was making the same towel, with a choice of thread colour) that I am still making huck towels. Today’s are a good deal more interesting and attractive than the first one. That's a good thing  nearly 70 years on!

So, refreshed, I'm happy to return to knitting for a bit.