colonial overshot brands

Handwoven table runner designed and woven with a colonial blue cotton yarn. This runner is woven with a natural color background. This piece has been woven in a traditional over...

Ask most people what “overshot,” and most weavers think of American colonial weavers and their coverlets. While coverlets are represented here, this collection also includes projects that dazzle with color, drape with luscious softness, and take overshot in new directions. Scarves and shawls, runners (for table and floor), tablecloths and clothing—all appear in this comprehensive collection. Overshot, even in its colonial interpretation, was a miracle weave, allowing unbelievable patterning on only four shafts. Add to pattern the use of color and fine and luxurious yarns, and you’ll start your own love affair with overshot. This is the second eBook on overshot (see also A Baker"s Dozen: Top Projects in Overshot eBook)

It is a popular and well know weave structure with well known motif designs such as Honeysuckle, Snails trails, Cat’s Paw, Young lover’s knot and Maple leaf. Overshot means the weft shoots either over or under the warp.

The Treadling for Overshot is a 2/2 Twill. That is 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-1. Overshot is woven with a thick pattern thread alternating with a thinner tabby thread. The pattern block may be repeated as many times as you like to build up a pleasing block. So it will be pattern thread, tabby a, pattern thread, tabby b. Lift 1 and 3 for tabby a and 2 and 4 for tabby b.

Monks belt, so called because a monks’ status in the monastery was indicated by the pattern woven on the belt is different from the other Overshots motifs as it is woven in 2 blocks on opposites. A block will be either 1 and 2, or 3 and 4. The pattern is created by the varying size of the blocks.

It is not difficult to design your own overshot pattern. A name draft is just one of the ways to do so. The above tablecloth was made by a group of weavers, each wove a square and many of them designed their own name drafts.

It is this subject, the embeddedness and codification of historical circumstances in cloth, that I chose to analyze in my work for the Portland Biennial in 2019, curated by Ashley Stull Meyers, Yaelle S. Amir, Elsheba Johnson at Disjectin Portland, Oregon. For the exhibition, I presented a historical weaving attributed to the collection of Peter Hardeman Burnett, noted author of the racist Oregon exclusionary laws, which, among other provisions, prevented Black Americans and other people of color from owning property in the state of Oregon from 1844 on into the modern era. That textile, woven in a popular colonial American style known as “Overshot,” is a recognizable aesthetic of American domestic idealism, one that can be traced back to the original colonies and Northern European ancestry.

Overshot is one of those magic structures that appeals to both historical-minded weavers and thoroughly modern ones alike. Whether you want to re-create historical coverlets or create something stylish and new, overshot has you covered. As both a former historian and a millennial, I love all aspects of overshot, and if you’re like me, you’ll love our new eBook featuring ten 4-shaft overshot projects from the past decade of Handwoven.

When choosing projects for this new eBook, we wanted to let weavers see the progression of American overshot weaving. You’ll find projects based on traditional designs and drafts of old, projects featuring the miniature overshot of Bertha Gray Hayes, and wonderful—and modern—interpretations of this timeless weave structure. When you weave through the projects in this book, you get to weave through history.

Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it; just take a look at some of the fabulous projects featured within! There’s the fabulous Prim Rose Table Runner by Norma Smayda and Ann Rudman based on a draft from Weaver Rose, the Wandering Vine Table Runner from Tom Knisely (this also happens to be my all-time favorite Tom Knisely project, which is saying something), Tracy Kaestner’s Sweet Little Wedding Towels that pay homage to that famous weaver of “little” overshot, Bertha Gray Hayes, and oh, so much more.

People often complain that the budget overshot and the expenses were higher than the estimate. This clearly indicates the lack of proper execution of the budget.

In contrast to the “lightning rounds” on the prior evening for the conclusion of the semifinal round, the crowd was a bit subdued at the 8:30 AM start time. However, the teams had no such issues, and it was an intense match from the start. The beginning of the game was a little rough for the American stars on the Colony O-line, as Jimmy Mickle overshot on a huck and Chris Kocher put it out of reach in the end zone, but the Revolver D-line gave it back twice and Mickle hit Tom “Cupcake” Tullet cutting deep off the backside.