Have you used the overshot weaving technigue? I would be very interested in your experiences.

My first admiration of weaving was seeing the backstrap weavers. I like so many thing in their fabrics. The main one is the designs, the pictures. When I first got my loom, all the different methods and jargon confused me. Now I am ready to try again.

Overshot is a two shuttle weave structure, where one shuttle of weft weaves a plain weave fabric while the second shuttle carries a heavier weft which floats over areas of warp to create what is known as "pattern. ---www.rosalieneilson.com

Notes

  1. Two shuttles - background weft + pattern color weft
  2. Pattern weft needs to be a heavier fiber than used on the background shuttle.
  3. Use pick up stick to create floats for the pattern weft.
  4. After doing a pick (row) with the pattern shuttle, be certain to weave a pick of tabby with the background shuttle. Tabby is the regular over and under weave.

 Questions

Is there a guideline for how much thicker the pattern yarn should be? What prevents the 2 colors from creating a dotted  background?

Useful References

  1. http://www.interweavestore.com - Search the words "mermaid scarf" to find magazine with article or a kit. Teaches making curved free form designs
  2. https://youtu.be/FVoMP1SXCqo - Video by Patty Ann - Weave Overshot Christmas on a Rigid Heddle
  3. http://www.weavingtoday.com/blogs/rigid-heddle_reflections/archive/2013/12/20/let-39-s-talk-color.aspx - Article by Liz Gipson on how to switch colors at the selvedge when using 2 shuttles

Comments

Fri, 08/26/2016 - 13:57

sarahnopp (not verified)

Usually the pattern weft is a thicker yarn than the plain weave. Often the plain weave is a  cotton or linen, with a thicker, alternate color for the pattern yarn. The wool fills in the gaps nicely and even fulls a tiny bit after wet finishing, so it is a solid pattern block.

But it doesn't have to be.

I have done a lot of sampling using same colors/different thickness, and same color & thickness and it makes interesting fabric. 

I have not done this on Rigid Heddle though, as I tend to useit for quick projects.

Fri, 08/26/2016 - 19:35

10ashus

Your samplers would make a very interesting study. I went to a Walmart department store to find inexpensive yarns to play with for samplers. The fibers, though different manufacturers, were all acrylics of the same weight.

Thank you for the suggestion of cotton and wool.

 

 

 

Mon, 09/05/2016 - 22:27

Keylimepie

Sounds similar to what I have just been learning in a backstrap pebble weave class with Laverne Waddington. Although the yarns were the same weight we wove a pattern weave on one side and a pebble weave on the other. In between patterns the pattern became plain weave so the pebble became the background pattern. We made string heddles for the pebbles and the patterns. Now you have made me think about translating that technique to the rigid heddle loom.

Tue, 09/06/2016 - 06:14

10ashus

I am key lime green with envy that you have Laverne as an instructor. I haunted her web ste 5 years before I started weaving. In fact, I was prowling there last week in her tutorials for beginners. Laverne's weaving creativity and teaching ability are outstanding.

https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/backstrap-weaving-a-tutorial-and-some-terrific-tiny-projects/

Mon, 11/28/2016 - 06:22

10ashus

Inlaid Weaves by Karen Searle

https://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/articles/mw_03_05-2.pdf

Teaches to create the plain weave (tabby) as a background and weave a pattern with supplementary pattern thread. Good technique if you do not want the pattern color to run all the way across.

Group Audience
Rigid heddlers