Bionic I wonder if you could help me?
I have a Rigid Heddle and I want to make tea towels for Christmas presents I have tried using dk cotton but this is too thick could you advise me what cotton to use and hopefully a British supplier.
Thank you, sorry for the hijack
If it helps, we asked an experienced weaver for guidance on this exact topic (well, for tea towels to make on our 4-shafts) at Woolfest, and ended up buying Venne 8/2 unmercerised organic cotton from My Fine Weaving Yarns. It was a toss-up between the pure cotton and the cottolin - half-and-half cotton and linen - but we decided to use the pure cotton.
It's absolutely beautiful yarn.
Now that we've done our sums, we've realised that the fact that cottolin doesn't shrink much, if at all, would have made a big difference to the amount we would have needed. But they're both beautiful yarns, and come in delicious colours.
Weaving cotton isn't cheap, however.
. So an alternative is to call Fairfield Mill and ask them if they have anything suitable. They get ends of lots, which they then sell on to domestic weavers, so they have an ever-changing stock. I'm told they're always happy to discuss your requirements, very able to help you decide what you need (the terminology is daunting at first, isn't it!) and the yarns are usually significantly cheaper than the likes of the Venne from MFWY.