Dear weaving gurus, I am hoping someone can help answer a question that popped into my head at a sourdough making class last night. The instructor used tea towels to line her proofing baskets and mentioned whatever you use needs to be lint-free (sticky dough + lint = bad combination). Naturally, I would like to make some custom towels for my bread-baking needs (obviously!), but I have absolutely no idea how lint-free towels come to be! Is it in the yarn preparation or some mysterious finishing process? Does anyone know? I use 2/8 cotton for my towels from Maurice Brassard and I certainly vacuum out plenty of lint bunnies from under my loom every now and then, so I would go ahead and say those towels are not lint-free. Is there a different kind of cotton I should be using? Is it even possible with cotton? Is linen lint-free? Would love some help figuring this out! Please and thank you in advance.

Hi Olena, I make my own bread too, so I know what you're talking about. I have some handwoven towels using 8/2 regular cotton and they were sett a little tighter than I would normally want a towel, but they make great towels for my bread to rise in without sticking. Mind you....I do flour them before I start. I like 18 epi for a drapey towel but these are probably 20 with a good firm beat, or a double beat. They are tight. If the structure is tight then you don't get lint. Linen is also great if it is a fine linen, or 16/2 cotton sett tightly would be good too...like around 28-30 epi for p.w. Hope this helps :)

Wow, Olena and Jane! You've inspired me to try both the lint-free towel and the no knead bread! If somebody on this thread adds that they make their own butter and jam, I'm in trouble! LOL

Wow, something else to do with zucchini’s. Can you share that recipe. We always have way to many zucc’s. Have never made butter :)

I most definitely can. It deserves to be passed around. The recipe I use is a much condensed set of instructions that's been stuck to my fridge for years (on a rather crusty by now piece of paper) , but I've tracked down the original instructions online: https://practicalselfreliance.com/zucchini-marmalade/
I usually reduce the sugar in any kind of jam recipes quite significantly, so it's very likely that I did it for this one as well (but I also always recommend making a small batch of the recipe as written first before tweaking it). Happy marmalading!