overshot on rigid heddle loom in stock

Crazyshot - creative overshot weaving - introduces anyone who uses a rigid heddle loom to a whole world of creative weaving. Using just one heddle and one pick-up stick, you’ll explore color, design, and texture, taking your weaving to the next level.

Complete step-by-step instructions are included for weaving all 14 of the designs in this book. Also provided are how-tos for the single heddle overshot technique, reading charts for the rigid heddle loom, and finishing techniques, along with lots of tips and tricks for successful and

Complex patterning is easier than it looks with this simple charted technique. All you need are basic rigid heddle warping and weaving skills to start your next weaving adventure!

Amanda has been creating with fiber for almost twenty years. After taking numerous art classes in college including ceramics, intaglio printing, and wood carving, Amanda became a self-taught crocheter in 2003. She picked up the love of weaving and knitting over the last several years through classes at Alamitos Bay Yarn Company. Amanda has taught rigid heddle weaving with Carla since 2019.

Hello, friends. What a busy week we’ve had here in Harrisville. I’ve made a new acquisition to my home studio: a trestle stand for my rigid heddle loom! I’m really excited about it. The stand allows one to position the loom at an angle appropriate for her and keeps the loom off of the floor when not in use. Assembly of the stand was not difficult. I’m really excited about the possibility of taking my loom outside on the patio on a nice day and working outdoors!

I designed this rigid heddle scarf to introduce color and weave effects to newer weavers. The warping of the pattern is a bit fiddly, so it helps to have a solid understanding of warping a rigid heddle; it is not a good “first” project. The pattern is available for instant download in my Etsy shop. You may also purchase the pattern right here with Paypal and I will email the file to you.

Also related to rigid heddle weaving, the workshop at Harrisville Designs went well. My goal as workshop leader was to help new weavers gain the background and confidence needed to warp and to weave on the rigid heddle loom on their own, at home, and be excited about it! Here are just a couple of photos of the lovely creations woven by class participants:

We were even able to touch on a couple of techniques beyond plain weave, including basket weave (a plain weave variation) and Brooks bouquet, which adds a lacy touch to handwoven plain weave fabric with no pick-up stick or crochet hook or extra heddle required.

Using more than one color in the warp (I’ve used 3 here) is an interesting exercise. To my eye, the texture of the weaving structure really seems to shine. Of course, after the cloth is off of the loom and finished, we might be looking at an entirely different kettle of fish. But that’s what makes this whole gig so fun, right?

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"Thank you, Kelly, for providing this RHL Overshot Class. Because of all your videos, I have gone from newbie to being able to produce this beautiful scarf! I learned how to read a four shaft pattern draft and from that, warp and thread my loom. I learned how to manage more than one heddle and handle different combinations of them. It was also helpful to learn about floating selvedges. I will never do another project without them."

"I love learning new techniques. This was a fun one to learn. I appreciate your step-by-step instructions to help get me a solid foundation to start. I look forward to trying my hand at this beautiful scarf!"

"This was one of the best weaving courses I have taken on line. Your calm and slowly paced weaving videos are excellent. Very easy to follow. Also the feedback you give to questions is much appreciated and it always works. I like being able to go back an replay the videos as I progress to make sure I didn"t miss anything. Good job."

This is the section to explore the possibilities of overshot with many variations, test out your yarn and get some practice in weaving with this structure.

When we move on to the project there are 3 variations for threading so that you can choose the best method for the way YOU learn. The project is a stunning, iridescent and luxurious scarf that is a real head turner!

Kelly is a self taught weaver with a big passion for sharing the timeless art of weaving with others. Kelly is known for her calm and slow teaching style and she bases her classes on how she would have liked to have been taught. She designs all of her own projects and caters for levels from beginner to intermediate. Most available classes are for the rigid heddle loom, floor, table and inkle loom weaving.

How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.

Take your weaving to another level! Crazyshot introduces anyone who uses a rigid heddle loom to a new world of creative weaving. Explore color, design, and texture — even revisit your favorite fair isle and needlework charts.

You’ll earn this single-heddle overshot technique including how to read charts together with Myra’s tips and tricks for successful and satisfying results. All you need to start your next weaving adventure are basic skills in warping and weaving.

One of the great things about having been a blogger for 12 years (did I actually just admit that?!) is that you occasionally get to look back and see how very far you’ve come.

Over three years ago, when my David Louet floor loom was still somewhat new to me, I wrotethis post on overshot. If you read it, you will discover that my initial relationship with overshot was not a very positive one.

Back then, I was a little harder on myself as a learning weaver. By now, I’ve realised that weaving, just like life, is a journey that has a beginning but no end. Back then, I thought that my ultimate goal was to be a “master weaver”.

Honestly, I don’t even really know what that means but it no longer matters to me. I just want to be the best weaver I can be, but even more importantly, to continue to be fulfilled, challenged and rewarded by doing it.

The happy ending to the initial overshot sob story is that I can weave overshot now. Quite well, in fact! And I also teach it. And I happen to love it, very, very much. Don’t you love a happy ending?

I don’t think there was any particular moment where I thought to myself “I can weave overshot now!” I didn’t even weave any overshot for quite some time after that initial attempt. But slowly it tempted me back, and we started over. It was just a matter of sticking with it, employing some specific techniques and practice, practice, practice until it feels like an old friend.

My love of overshot has only increased with my more recent discovery of American Coverlets. I loved the look of the coverlets and the history behind them before I realised that so many of them were woven in the wonderfully humble 4 shaft overshot.

Now that I have quite a lot of experience weaving overshot, I want to share my best overshot tips with you in hope that you too will fall in love with this wonderful weave structure.

I know, I know, sampling takes time and yarn, it’s true. But it teaches you so, so much. It can also be more economical, as you can test your yarns out for suitability before committing to a larger project. Trust me, sampling is so well worth the time!

To weave overshot you need a warp yarn, a tabby yarn and a pattern weft yarn. Using the same yarn for warp and tabby works perfectly. For the pattern weft, I like to use a yarn that is twice the size of the tabby/warp yarn. I have experimented with using doubled strands of tabby/warp yarn in a contrasting colour, but it just doesn’t look as good. A thicker pattern yarn is the way to go.

What will the size of your item be? A miniature overshot pattern may get lost in a blanket, but may be perfect for a scarf. As a general rule, a good way to estimate the size of one repeat of your pattern just by looking at the draft is to see how many repeats are in one threading repeat. Also consider the thickness of your yarns and the sett you intend to weave.

Just to give you an idea, my current project is woven at 20 ends per inch with 8/2 cotton for warp and tabby and fingering weight wool for the pattern weft. The weaving draft has 50 threads in one threading repeat. My design repeats on the loom are around 2.5″ wide and just under 5″ long, which is a great size for the 30″ x 99″ throw I’m weaving.

I throw my picks gently to avoid drag on the selvedges and therefore preventing excessive draw in. I give a generous angle to the weft pick and keep it soft at the edges. I do adjust the picks at the edges before beating when necessary, but mostly I prefer to leave them alone and let them settle into place on their own.

This is a non negotiable for overshot if you want neat edges and less headaches! You get used to using floating selvedges very quickly, so don’t stress if you have no experience with them.

This is another selvedges tip. I’ve experimented with crossing the two weft yarns at the selvedge to see whether it gives a neater edge, but it doesn’t, at least for me. So, instead of twisting the two wefts at each selvedge when throwing a new pick, I just let them follow one another sequentially and my edges are much neater that way.

Besides the thickness of the pattern weft yarn, you will also want to consider what kind of bloom it may have after wet finishing. For example, I know that my fingering weight wool blooms beautifully, whereas a cotton of the same size would not bloom in the same way. I very much like the contrast of the 8/2 cotton background with the plump wool pattern weft.

I’m going to sound like a broken record, but once again, a sample will show you everything you need to know about how your yarn will behave as a finished piece.

This is a particular problem if your colours and white on red or navy on white – you want to preserve that white and not have it come out of the wash as a pink or light blue!

The best way to avoid this is through vigilance, especially in the first 10-15 minutes of your woven piece making contact with water. If you see dye beginning to run, take it out of the warm wash and rinse in cold water until the water runs clear. Place back in the warm water and maintain your watch on it. Repeat the rinsing process if needed.

There are 6 treadles needed for overshot, even though you weave on 4 shafts. The two extra treadles are for the tabby weave. I always set up my pattern treadles in the centre of the loom – two on the left and two on the right. Then I set up a “left” tabby and a “right” tabby treadle. To do this on my 8 shaft loom I leave a gap between the pattern treadles and the tabby treadles so that my feet can “see” and differentiate between a pattern and tabby treadle.

I like to advance little and often. You will find your own preference or “sweet spot” for weaving, but I find that with overshot I advance a lot more frequently at a much smaller amount than I do usually.

The firmness of beat will depend on a few things. Your chosen yarns, the weave structure, the width of the project and the tension your warp is under are all important considerations. I let the project dictate.

An example of this is that I wove an overshot sampler right before Is started my main project (the throw). It was a narrow warp (around 8″) and a different overshot threading and treadling than I’m using for the project.

I personally do not use a temple. Some weavers will say they won’t weave without one. I’ve tried using a temple on many of my projects, particularly if I’m getting broken edge warp threads (signs of tension problems and too much draw in). But I will avoid using one wherever I can get away with it, and I don’t use one for weaving overshot.

I find that if I’m careful with weft tension and warping evenly, I do not get excessive draw in. It is something I’m constantly aware of while weaving and remind myself of tip 4 so that my weft picks are not pulling in at the edges.

The WEAVERS LOFT is located in the beautiful countryside of Southeastern Indiana. Although the setting is rural, we"re only 30 minutes from the heart of Cincinnati, Ohio and an hours drive from downtown Indianapolis.

A set of cotton and linen towels woven with Mallo Cotton Slub and Duet Cotton/Linen. This rigid heddle pattern uses a pick-up stick and a supplementary weft to create weft floats inspired by the Halvdräll Towels (a 4-shaft pattern) by Arianna Funk.

Warp Length: 4 yards (assumes 26" warp length per towel plus generous loom waste, room for sampling, and about 18% take-up/shrinkage on length and width)*

Note:As written, this project will make four towels and leave you with plenty to make more. If you are working from your stash, assume approximately 100 yards of each yarn per towel woven to these dimensions.

1. Warp the loom using your preferred method (direct or indirect) with a total of 156 warp ends, 4 yards long, alternating 1" sections (12 ends each) of Yarn A and Yarn B. Begin and end with Yarn A, for a total of 13 stripes. Center for a weaving width of 13" and sley 1 end per hole and slot in a 12 dent heddle on a rigid heddle loom.

Place the heddle into the “down” position. Behind the heddle, only the slot threads are up. Place a long piece of cardboard, like a section of manila file folder under the raised threads to help you see which threads to pick up (See photo 1)

Pick 2: heddle is in NEUTRAL, pickup stick slides forward to heddle and turned on its side to create the weft float shed, weave with Yarn A (See photo 4)

**A note on dealing with selvedges: with weft floats, it is important that you cross the wefts at each selvedge edge. Do this by crossing the exiting weft either over or under the previous weft. (See photos 5, 6, 7)

4. Repeat the four picks above nine times, then replace Yarn A with Yarn B and repeat sequence another nine times with the new color. Alternate these blocks of Yarn A and Yarn B until you have woven 11 blocks total (6 of Yarn A, 5 of Yarn B). Towel should measure ~26" in loom under tension. Finish with 2" of tabby using Yarn C. Weave a few picks with contrasting scrap yarn to in between towels, then repeat the above steps to complete 3 additional towels.

5. Cut yardage off the loom and zig zag stitch the edges. Machine wash cold on delicate cycle, tumble dry low and press. Cut towels apart at scrap yarn markers. Hem using your preferred method.

In addition to being Gist"s Operations Manager and Wholesale Director, Christine is a weaver and exhibiting fiber artist. She scampered down the rabbit hole of rigid heddle weaving several years ago as a way to use up her knitting stash and never looked back. In addition to very practical cloth woven to adorn home and body (tea towels are her favorite home linen projects to weave), Christine also weaves conceptual works that explore themes of mood and memory, strength and fragility, and often reflect on the current political and ecological landscape. Her work is held in private collections across the country and is shown regionally in New England galleries. To see more of Christine"s work, check out her Instagram.

Full Disclosure: I have a 24-harness 45" wide loom that takes up most of a room. It"s tall and sturdy—in fact, I like to joke that if that big earthquake ever hits here in Southern California I"m hiding inside it. What that big loom isn"t, is flexible and portable. It is quite large and because I tend toward inertia, it might prevent me from ever relocating. Just the thought of figuring out how to move it is tiring. As for flexibility, I guess you could say being able to change tie-up and treadling sequences using a computer is an advantage but it isn"t the loom I look to for sampling and experimenting.

Flexibility and portability are two attributes I associate with the rigid-heddle loom, and I think they are what make them such a popular tool in weaving. Their portability is easy to describe: rigid-heddle looms are looms that travel easily from room to room and from house to house. I"m pretty sure that someone at some point has brought one in their carry-on bag and woven on their way across country. Having met my husband on an airplane, I can only imagine the conversations that could start.

Flexibility is what makes them the loom I often reach for when I have an idea in my head that needs to get out. From seeing the rigid-heddle projects in Handwoven, at my local guild, and on the internet, I know I"m not alone. The ease and speed of direct warping allows for a quick start up and gets the weaver to weaving faster than other looms. I believe for many of us, having that shorter time commitment up front allows more freedom of expression.

That freedom of expression can be seen in the beautiful Mermaid Scarf by Lisa Rayner on the cover of Handwoven November/December 2015. Without the ease of pick-up the rigid-heddle loom affords, that scarf might never have been woven. Because the loom works well with knitting yarns, many projects that would probably be difficult to weave on a multishaft loom have come to be, such as Judy Pagel"s Classic Caplet featured both in Handwoven May/June 2015 and in the book Simple Woven Garments that uses Brooks bouquet and a fingering weight yarn. Finally, and not to blow my own horn, I can tell you definitively I would never have thought of doing the little inlay squares on my towels that were in Handwoven September/October 2014 if I hadn"t been working on a rigid-heddle loom and “playing around.”

My advice: learn your looms" strengths. Use your multishaft looms for what they are intended for and look to your rigid-heddle loom for the freedom of expression it allows (And when that earthquake hits, join me in my loom, with your rigid-heddle loom.

Crazyshot - creative overshot weaving - introduces anyone who uses a rigid heddle loom to a whole world of creative weaving. Using just one heddle and one pick-up stick, you"ll explore color, design, and texture, taking your weaving to the next level. Complete step-by-step instructions are included for weaving all 14 designs in this book. Also provided are how-tos for the single heddle overshot technique, reading charts for the rigid heddle loom, and finishing techniques, along with lots of tips and tricks for successful and satisfying results. Complex patterning is easier than it looks with this simple charted technique. All you need are basic rigid heddle warping and weaving skills to start your next weaving adventure!

With one heddle and one stick, Myra Wood explores the art of working with ground and pattern wefts in this creative approach to rigid-heddle weaving. Known for her for colorwork across many mediums, Myra beautifully illustrates that complex does not have to be complicated. --Liz Gipson, Author of A Weaver"s Guide to Yarn and other books for rigid-heddle weaving and the host of the Yarnworker School

Rigid heddle weavers looking to go beyond plain weave have a wonderful new resource with CrazyShot!, a new book by Myra Wood. Try this overshot weaving technique with just-beyond-beginner weaving skills.

Myra is a talented fiber artist who has delved into all kinds of fiber arts, and weaving is just her newest passion. Myra is also a personal friend. I’ve watched her (virtually) as she discovered a passion for rigid heddle weaving and delved so deeply into it. Throughout the months of the pandemic, her enthusiasm for learning new skills was a bright light. Her concentration and excitement were inspiring! She turned a lockdown into a book. (Makes me feel lazy by comparison.)

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Crazyshot is a rediscovery of a supplementary-weft technique akin to overshot weaving that’s done with just one heddle, one pick-up stick and two or more shuttles on a rigid heddle loom. As with all supplementary-weft techniques, a background fabric is woven simultaneously with a decorative pattern that sits on top of the fabric.

Overshot techniques are typically done with multiple heddles or on a multi-shaft floor loom. The advantage of this technique is that it can be done on any sized rigid heddle loom with just one sized 7.5 or 8 heddle.

I was so inspired by a class on Branoe weaving, a Russian variation, by Kelly Casanova. I started a deep dive into finding out as much as I could about it and came up sorely short of any more real instruction. There was very little information other than samples and basic history of supplementary-weft techniques from around the world.

Kelly’s class reminded me so much of my love for stranded knitting so I tried out a few Fair Isle charts and loved the results. I looked through all the different charted needlework designs I could find and realized that many could be adapted for Crazyshot. Once I started I couldn’t stop and I had to write the book to share my excitement with other weavers.

This technique is especially suited for knitters and crocheters or anyone else who uses charted designs for needlework. The charts are based on the same simple grids used for several kinds of stranded colorwork and should look very familiar. It’s also a great way to use up lots of leftover stash. The pattern yarns can change colors, like Fair Isle knitting, as long as they’re a consistent weight.

Not at all! As long as you know the basics; how to warp and do plain weave, the entire technique is explained in detail. It’s actually quite an easy technique since there is no special threading involved.

I’ve seen a few examples of international, ethnic clothing using similar techniques for bands and borders so that’s something I’m experimenting with now. And who knows? Might be another Crazyshot book in the future.

Myra Wood is an internationally know fiber artist, designer, author and teacher. She teaches a wide range of classes in knitting, crochet, embroidery and beading specializing in all things creative. Her online classes are available at Craftsy.com. Myra is the author of Crazyshot! Creative Overshot Weaving on the Rigid Heddle Loom, Knit in New Directions, Creative Crochet Lace and Crazy Lace, along with numerous published patterns in books and magazines. Myra has been a guest instructor on numerous episodes of Knit and Crochet Now, Knitty Gritty, Uncommon Threads and Knitting Daily on PBS, HGTV and DIY Network.

Elegant patterns on your rigid heddle loom are easier than you can imagine! Here author and expert weaver Myra Wood introduces makers to a world of creative weaving that uses one heddle and one pick-up stick to  explore color, design, and texture. Crazyshot! includes complete step-by-step instructions for weaving 14 eye-catching designs, along with how-tos for the single heddle overshot technique, an overview of how to read charts for the rigid heddle loom, finishing techniques, and tips and tricks for successful and satisfying results