All 12 squares in a row!

Because my memory is about 2 seconds long, I tagged each square as I finished them. Wouldn’t want to return the wrong square to the wrong weaver!

Eloise’s square!

Happiness is…

What is better than a close-up?

The weavers involved in the coverlet project will be swapping squares mid-February. So, I’ll be sure to show you what I receive from the other weavers! It’ll be wonderful!

A sea of overshot!

Next up is a little tie fabric for some handbags! Talk to you soon…

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More color, please!

Love this one!

So, one of the keys to weaving an overshot pattern is selecting the right sized yarn. See the 2 shuttles? The one with the pretty color in it contains yarn that is about twice the size of the other yarn. The thicker yarn is meant to fill in the pattern over the background so the pattern shows up better!

The 2 different yarns have very different responsibilities. The neutral colored yarn creates a durable fabric – practical and necessary, but not very exciting. The glamorous colored yarn creates the pattern – yummy and beautiful, but the fabric will fall apart on it’s own. They both need each other to create an enticing and stable piece of cloth – sort of a ying and yang relationship!

Love a close-up!

Whenever I run out of yarn in the shuttle, I overlap the old end and the new end in the fabric and just keep weaving. The close weave will lock everything in place. Weavers use knots quite often, but never in the fabric – too bulky!

Changing colors

Celedon, anyone?

I took an Overshot class at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. We learned all sorts of amazing things about this particular style of weaving, as well as other things you can do with an Overshot pattern. One of the things that really struck me was the history of it. Imagine a time when you had to shear the sheep, wash the wool, card the wool, spin the wool (in 2 different sizes, mind you!), dye the wool and then go through all the steps to weave it! And once it was woven, you would still have to hand sew it! I get exhausted just thinking about it!

Gold – round 2!

This particular pattern has a reversible quality to it – bonus! You can see in the photo below that the blue is prominent on one side and isn’t on the other. It’s magic, truly!

Coming to the end!

Next up, I’ll take this off the loom and you can see all the colors together! See you soon…

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In goes the TP!

First, I use a bit of toilet paper to spread out the yarns from the knots. Weavers use things like old yarn and fabric strips to even the yarns out. Personally, I like how easy it is to tear the TP out when the project is finished!

Shafts lift the yarn

Above is a side view of the shafts lifting and separating the yarns. The shuttle slips through the separated yarns and the magic begins!

Sample in green

So, my theory is, when creating a project for other people, always sample with my yarn and my section. If I screw it up, it won’t bother me as much as if I mess up someone else’s portion!

2 Shuttle pattern

The apple green is my color square. When all the weavers have woven their squares, I’ll end up with 12 squares in different patterns, all in my color! I can’t wait!

Purple!

This type of weaving is called overshot, which involves 2 shuttles. One shuttle creates the pattern (the colored yarn) and one shuttle creates the base of the fabric (the neutral-colored yarn). The patterned yarn is thicker so it will cover the fabric better and create a denser design.

Wool Yarn

What I learned during this process was that the wool yarn covers much better than the cotton. I chose a cotton because of the price and because I didn’t think it would make such a difference. If I went down this road again, I would rethink that theory!

Close-up!

Beginning the teal square

It was very fun to change yarns throughout the project and see which weaver chose which yarns! In most cases, it completely made sense! Kind of like a personality test – “of course Lisa chose blue wool!”, etc…

Love the pattern!

Gold, please!

When we were discussing the project, the weavers that had already done this before stressed the fact that you have to mark which square belongs to which weaver. Case in point, I have 2 gold yarns that are very similar. So, I tried to tag each square as I finished it to keep it all straight. This became pretty critical since my memory is bad on a good day!

Gold Cotton

The red section

There’s more to come! I’ll have 12 squares when I’m finished. Stay tuned to see the rest!

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The reed goes into the loom

So, here we are! The reed has been sleyed and I’m ready to finish dressing the loom! (Setting up the loom is called “dressing” the loom – just in case you are participating in some sort of random trivia contest later today!) The reed slides into a set of grooves in the beater bar and is locked in place. The twisted warp hangs off the front of the loom, so the shorter ends face the back where I can start threading heddles!

Ready to thread some heddles!

Heddles are tall, skinny metal pieces with an eye in the middle. They move along a set of tracks in each shaft of the loom. Basically, the way you choose to thread your heddles will help determine what pattern you can weave later!

Threading the heddles

The overshot pattern I chose for my coverlet is a tad more complicated than the usual plain weave! So, I really had to pay attention and do lots of counting!

Close-up of the heddles

(Typically, I take a million pictures of threading the heddles and for some reason this time around, I only took two! What is that about? Falling down on the job, clearly…)

Extending the back

Once the yarns are all assigned to their own heddle, it’s time to extend the back of the loom and begin winding on!

Bird’s eye view of the back

There’s a rod lashed onto the back beam that all the yarns are tied to. Hopefully, the bird’s eye picture, plus the profile shot will give you an idea of orientation!

Profile shot

When winding onto the loom, it’s really important to keep everyone as even as possible. The quickest way to create very unhappy weavers is to deal with uneven tension – tight yarns on one end and loose yarns on the other, or in the middle! Yuck! (Every weaver you know is cringing at the thought!) And winding on is the stage where that can happen! So, it’s critical to pay attention!

View of the front

I own a fantastic video from Madelyn Van Der Hoogt and she recommends a method for winding on that I love! She separates the warp yarns into even groups (see the picture above) and then gives each group a yank, being sure to start in different places each pass. What I learned quickly is that when you pull the yarns left to right each time, my left side ends up longer – go figure! The other thing I learned is to use a stick or dowel instead of just your hands. Ah yes, the hated blisters…

Levers & Brakes & Cranks – Oh My!

Above is a picture of the side of the loom. On the left, you’ll see a lever at the top (this one rotates the front beam) and a pedal/lever at the bottom (this releases the brake). On the right side of the picture, you’ll see part of a crank (this rotates the back beam around). I wish I had a pointer for you – sometimes you need a few arrows to help you out!

So, as I’m winding everything on, I have one foot releasing the brake and one hand moving the crank, while I simultaneously add yardsticks to the back beam with the other hand. Yes, it’s a convoluted game of Weaving Twister! I highly recommend you don’t try this after having a few adult beverages…

Tying on the front

The yarn’s all wound on and it’s time to tie the ends to the front! And then, you guessed it, it’s time to weave! WooHoo! I’ll start adding in some color next time! Talk to you soon…

Ready to weave!

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Ready to sley!

(So, the title doesn’t really work – noun, verb problem. But, sometimes inspiration is an illusive, little, b-!) Next up in the coverlet project, let’s sley the reed! The yarn has been measured on the warping board and has been twisted off. Next step, insert the lease sticks!

In go the lease sticks

Lease sticks are 2 sticks with holes in the ends. Their purpose is to slide through the cross and keep all the yarns in order. In this case, I have a whole lot of the same color! So, it’s not quite as critical. But, they are still very important when keeping everyone in line! The goal is to avoid unnecessary twists and knots down the road!

Each yarn goes into a slot

Next up, the yarn goes into the reed! The reed I’m using is a 36″ wide (so it fits in the loom), with 12 dents per inch (12 slots or spaces per inch). Because I have a finer yarn, the yarns share a dent, so I end up with 20 yarns in 1 inch. Project is 18″, thus there is a total of 360 yarns! Math… lots of math!

Close-up!

Knotting each group

I like to knot each inch in an effort to double check my counting. It’s saved me more than once!

Almost done!

Because the project doesn’t take up the entire reed, I like to start in the middle to be sure everything is centered! Next up, the reed will go into the loom! There will be more color soon, I promise! Until next time…

Ready to go in the loom

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I have a local weaver’s guild near me, which is an amazing group of talented weavers and artists! The group has decided to work on a coverlet project together. A coverlet is like a bedspread. We have 12 weavers participating in the project. Each weaver selects a color. I selected an apple green. (The color in the picture isn’t quite right, but you’ll see plenty of other photos to get the idea!)

My coverlet color

The background color is a natural.

Background color

So, when my coverlet is finished it will be entirely apple green with a neutral-colored background. Now comes the fun part! Each weaver also selects a pattern. In this case, we are all using overshot – which is a style of weaving. (When you think of old, colonial blankets, this is the style!) I selected a pattern from Davison’s A Handweaver’s Pattern Book (this is an amazing book for anyone who’s into overshot! All 2 of you!).

A Classic Weaving Book!

I chose “Johann D’s Design No. 2”. I have no idea what or who the reference is to, but I think it’s awesome!

My coverlet pattern

So, this is how it’s supposed to work. (Keep in mind, this is still theoretical since we aren’t finished yet!) Each weaver will set up the loom for their pattern and weave (12) squares. We have all exchanged yarn with each other. So, I’ll weave my square in apple green, and weave Margaret’s square in gold, and Lisa’s in purple, and so on. When we are done weaving, we will cut the squares apart and hand them back to the owners. So, I should end up with (12) apple green squares, all in different patterns! Then, it’s up to each person to sew them together into the final coverlet form! On paper, it’s brilliant! (Keep your fingers crossed that it works out that way!)

I began at the warping board, measuring the background yarn. It doesn’t look that glamorous since it’s all one color. But, that’s part of the overshot charm!

On the warping board

Coming around the peg

The warping board is a great tool to ensure all the yarns are the same length and in the right order! The order isn’t as critical in this case, since the yarn is all the same. Weavers use a “cross” somewhere on the warping board to keep everyone in line!

The cross at the top

For this project, I have 380 yarns to measure out. So, there has to be tricks for counting or I lose track after about 13! I incorporate a long string that changes location every group of 20.

Lots of counting!

When the yarn is ready to come off the warping board, I use a little twist to keep everything together. I’ve seen other weavers do twists and mine is certainly not as beautiful. But, it does the trick!

Twisting the yarn off

Next up, the yarn will go into the reed! Can’t wait! Until next time…

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