Towels based on a 10th century Anglo-Scandanavian float-patterned twill found in Jorvik (no. 1336). It is worked on a 2/1 base, but with a floating warp/weft* at every third passage. These floating wefts occur in two different arrangements, three picks of one and then three picks of the other.
* It is undetermined if this is actually a warp-float or a weft-float patterned textile. Penelope Walton Rogers drafted this textile with weft-floats, pointing out that as a weft-float patterned twill the weave would require only four sheds, assuming that each shed is tied to a heddle rod. If instead each thread was only tied to a single heddle rod, and multiple rods were lifted, then a warp-float textile becomes more likely, as there is no evidence of warp-weighted looms with five heddle rods.
Regardless, I’ve chosen to weave this with warp floats, for the convenience of threading four shafts instead of five.
The completed towels
Front close up
Back Close up
| Yarn | 8/2 unmercerized cotton |
| Draft | Jorvik 1336 |
| Sett | 20 epi |
| Ends | 440 |
| Length | 3.6 yds |
| Warp | 1584 yards (7.5 ounces) |
| Weft | 1039.5 yards (5 ounces) |
A Day in the Life 