double weave overshot in stock

Conventional shaft loom weaving constricts the weaver into making only a single layer of fabric that is no wider than the loom. Increase your loom"s capabilities with Doubleweave Revised & Expanded!

In this comprehensive guide to doubleweave, master-weaver Jennifer Moore revisits the tips and techniques to weaving in multiple layers. Doubleweave Revised & Expanded is filled with new information about double weaving and more including:

This weave structure is also sometimes known as double weave overshot. The reason is because overshot threadings can be can be easily arranged to this weave structure. For that matter, any twill or twill derivative threading can be used. When you look at the woven fabric it has the look of overshot but lacks the long surface floats. It appears to be plain weave. Light and dark threads in the warp and weft interlace on the front and back surfaces of the fabric making areas of pattern similar to double weave. It simply magical.

Tom has designed this workshop so each student will be introduced to five different overshot patterns comparing each threading. During this workshop you will pick one of the patterns and choose two contrasting colors of Tencel to warp and weave a soft and luxurious scarf. If you would prefer a table runner or placemats instead of a scarf, two contrasting colors of cotton will do the trick well.  Whatever your preference, warping and weaving your own example of Complimentary Plain weave will give students the tools to weave more of this fascinating weave structure.

I had the privilege of teaching in Washington state for 8 days in March this year. I found out how to pronounce names like Skagitt and Whatcom. I enjoyed meeting some fascinating weavers. I also experienced the wonderful community of weavers in the Puget Sound area, and of course I saw some lovely scenery.

My first teaching assignment was a lecture to the Whidbey Weavers Guild. During this time of emerging corona virus activity, the guild was well attended. My lecture on Overshot: Past and Present was a warm-up for the three-day workshop I would begin the following day.

We had an eager 15 attendees in the overshot workshop. The work was very creative. I send out instructions for preparing the looms ahead of time. In the workshop, everyone follows the same treadling order, but each weaver chooses their own colors to bring. Sometimes the thickness varies from one weaver to the next, also. The result is that everyone’s artistic decisions and sense of design are apparent. No two set of samples are identical. The students work through a certain set of treadling patterns and go home with a variety of samples. Some of their work is pictured below.

The day after my overshot workshop, two wonderful ladies took me up to my next assignment: a lecture on Summer and Winter to the Skagit Valley Weavers Guild. Many of the guild members were also members of Whidbey Weavers Guild and of the Whatcom Weavers Guild, who would host me for my next workshop. A couple of my overshot workshop students brought in their samples. They had cut them from the loom and washed them the day before, after the overshot workshop was finished. It was fun to see their completed work and talk about what their next steps would be.

The three-day Early American Textiles workshop was presented at the Jansen Art Center and hosted by the Whatcom Weavers Guild. Nine students wove round robin style on ten different looms. Each loom had been warped by one of the students in a traditional weaving pattern using thread similar to what early American weavers would have used. Throughout the workshop we stopped to talk about production practices within the US and Europe during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. One of the students brought in a lovely coverlet she had found in a thrift store. Another shared stories of her aunt and uncle who were weavers. My students were very knowledgeable and, as usual, I learned as much from them as they did from me.

The Whatcom group was a tight-knit community of weavers, too. Many have known each other for years and they constantly share ideas and encouragement. The Jansen Art Center provides studio space for their collection of looms as well as library and meeting space. The staff at the Jansen Center was very welcoming and the cafe served some dynamite lunches–plus afternoon lattes to keep us all going.

Master weaver Jennifer Moore revisits her best-selling title and adds new information and more techniques in The Weaver’s Studio: Doubleweave Revised & Expanded. Conventional shaft loom weaving restricts the weaver into making only a single layer of fabric no wider than the loom. This comprehensive guide includes topics such as doubleweave technique samples for both 4 and 8-shaft looms, more overshot patterns, expanded information on how to weave fabric two, three, or even four times the width of your loom with no seam, and beautiful doubleweave patterns for the home. Learn to think about doubleweave in new and inventive ways and free your loom from the limits of traditional weaving!

This revised and expanded edition also includes several never-before-seen additions to help you master the magic of doubleweave: learn to weave triplewidth fabric with a contrasting structure in the center panel, discover Jennifer Moore’s “Double Rainbow” system of working with a rotation of six colors on four and eight shafts, finish your work more effectively while exploring one of the most intriguing weave structures, and so much more! Softcover, 175 pages; Interweave.

I am new to doubleweave and have been told that any overshot pattern can be used to weave a doublewide fabric. How do I figure out the treadling, especially when you weave the top layer first with the shuttle, then the bottom twice, and back to the top to finish. Can you please help me understand this?

I’m assuming you have threaded every other thread on the first four shafts following the overshot pattern for the top layer, and you have threaded the alternate threads on shafts 5 to 8 for the bottom layer the same order but in the opposite direction from the first four shafts.

To weave Block A in the top layer, for example, shafts 1 and 2 must be down plus all of the shafts in the bottom layer. To weave Block A in the bottom layer, you’ll raise the Block A shafts for the bottom layer so the pattern weft will be placed correctly when the piece is unfolded. You will therefore raise all of the top-layer shafts plus shaft 5 and 6. (Whenever you weave in the top layer you leave down the shafts where you want the weft to show on the face; whenever you weave in the bottom layer, you raise the shafts where you want the weft to show on the back plus the top-layer shafts.)

For specific information about planning and weaving projects in doublewidth overshot and other structures, you need the Best of Handwoven ebook, Doubleweave, Doublewidth! It is a great resource!

Have you ever heard of double weave? It refers to a tube of fabric that hasn’t been sewn together. Or if you know someone has a 36″ loom, but created a blanket that is 72″ wide. Those are both projects that used double weave.

Double weave refers to the process of weaving 2 layers at the same time on your loom. Then, choose if the layers are connected and how. The tube I mentioned? Simply weave the fabric such that it’s connected on both sides. The blanket is connected only on one side so it will open up. The options are endless.

Double weave can be done using only plain weave, so it doesn’t need to be complicated. But, it does take a minute to wrap your head around the logistics. If there’s ever a time to have smoke coming out of your ears, double weave would bring it on! Don’t let that dissuade you. It’s great fun and the design options are incredible. Give it a go!

Warp yarns – The yarns that are in the loom, under tension. In double weave projects, there will be twice as many warp yarns as usual because you are managing 2 layers.

Double Weave – Double weave is a weaving pattern where you weave 2 layers of fabric at the same time. It’s a little bit like patting your head and rubbing your belly simultaneously. But with a bit of practice, you’ll have it down pat (ha! pun intended).

Double weave in history – I began doing a bit of research about double weave and I found that William Morris incorporated it into his woven textiles. Are you familiar with him? He is one of the artists/designers that led the charge during the Arts & Crafts Movement in the late 1800’s. If you are curious to read a bit more about him, here is his Wikipedia link. It’s fascinating!

Overshot weave is the topic this week. Even if you haven’t heard of overshot before, I’m guessing you will still recognize it. Have you ever seen a historical coverlet before? That is overshot. Typically 2 colors. ALL about the pattern. That’s the one! Overshot.

Overshot is a partnership between 2 shuttles. The first shuttle is all about the pattern. She flits all over the fabric making big leaps and seemingly impossible designs. The second shuttle is all plain weave. She’s the reliable one, making sure the fabric will actually hold together.

Overshot Weave – Overshot is a weaving pattern that was very common in Southern Appalachia. I found a great article with some history about overshot from Comfort Cloth Weaving. Here’s the link.

Duneland Weaver’s Guild – This is the local weaver’s guild that I belong to. The organization has been active for over 70 years and the members are crazy talented! It is a seriously gifted group of weavers. If you have a weaver’s guild near you, it is worth it to see what they are doing!

Weave structures often have specific threading and treadling patterns that are unique to that particular weave structure and not shared with others. This book takes you out of the traditional method of weaving overshot patterns by using different treadling techniques. This will include weaving overshot patterns such as Summer/Winter, Italian manner, starburst, crackle, and petit point just to name a few. The basic image is maintained in each example but the design takes on a whole new look!

Author of the popular Overshot Simply and Shadow Weave Simply now shares her explorations of overshot weaving structures. Her teaching style is to break down the weave structure into its basic parts so that it is easy to understand, and then teach you how the parts work together to create the weave structure so that you can use any pattern or create your own.

This book is a great pattern book compiled from patterns sent in by the Friends of Handwoven. Variations on twills, complex overshot, crackle, lace and huck, double weave and shadow weave all abound in this satisfying collection of complete weaving drafts in the style of the classic 4-harness collection of Marguerite Davison. For those moments to study something new are diversified plain weaves, extended twills, unit weaves, piquet multiple tabby, and more.

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.

I’ve put a lot of research time into coverlets this year and have made it a big weaving goal of mine to weave my first coverlet, which is quite an undertaking, but I relish the thought.

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.

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.

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.

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.