Towels in nature's own colors

Waaay back in the 1980s, I was in graduate school in Austin, Texas, when I learned about Sally Fox's efforts to cultivate cotton which historically grew in colors: from shades of brown, red, green, and the blue she's still searching for. When Weaving Indiana (a monthly guild meeting about 50 minutes northeast) had a towel exchange last November, I decided to weave up some of those natural cottons I had bought in the previous year or two.

Through the magic of weaving, all these towels were woven with the same tie-up but different treadling. The "tree" pattern was in an issue of Handwoven. I put the tie-up on my iPad using iWeave it, then I played with the treadling to create all these different towels. Here I have overlapped the finished towels.

Also, the next two pictures are the same design: one from the front, the other from the back. In weaving, sometimes the "wrong" side is more striking than the "right" one! (The difference in color is why cameras can be perplexing.)

And here is another diamond variation.

And zig zags!

 Part of what is so fascinating about this natural, undyed cotton, is that the color deepens when the fabric is simmered for at least a half hour!