4 shaft overshot patterns manufacturer

Blend three colors of yarn across the warp and weft to make a lovely scarf that gently shifts color from one edge to the other.  These scarves are designed to give you this fun color experience on either your Rigid Heddle or 4-shaft Loom!  Have fun and change color!

We had so much fun with the Discover Gradients Weave Along, that we created Napkin and Placemat instructions using the gradient lessons in the class as a launching pad for our design.  The napkins are woven with 10/2 Tubular Spectrum™ mercerized cotton yarn, and the placemats are woven with 3/2 Tubular Spectrum™ mercerized cotton yarn.  Each kit contains enough yarn for warp and weft and has multiple color options.  Both the napkin and placemats have instructions for either shaft looms or rigid heddle looms.

Elsa Krogh, Danish weaver, spinner and author, has brought together her favorite weaving patterns using four, six and eight shafts. Elsa has woven beautiful and exciting shawls, scarves, cushions, towels, table runners, placemats and fabric material, She uses a variety of techniques from twill to summer and winter and modern backed weaves and there are projects for all levels of weaving experience. Many of the patterns are sourced from archival material from local museums. Elsa brings a wonderful sense of continuity to her craft as well as elegant Scandinavian style.

Want to make Hand towels that are both functional and beautiful?  This is it!  8 colors from around our Tubular Spectrum™ Mercerized cotton plus enough white yarn to make either 2 or 4 beautiful and functional basket weave dishtowels.  Now available in Tones, Tints or Brights!

Finished towels are approximately 12.5” x 27”.  The 2-towel variations only have instructions for weaving on the rigid heddle looms.  The 4-towel variations have instructions for both rigid heddle and 4-shaft looms.  We include several treadling variations for the 4-shaft looms to mix things up!  Choose Brights, Tints or Tones yarns.

Remember secret decoder rings and writing special messages for your friends? Overshot name drafts are woven “secret messages” created by assigning each letter of a phrase to a shaft on the loom. Based on the message “Yes, it’s worth it”, this 4-shaft design is the weaver’s response to “But you can buy a runner, is it really worth all the effort?” Why yes, yes it is indeed worth it. Featuring Lunatic Fringe Yarns Tubular Spectrum™ Tints & Tones mercerized cotton yarns.

Weave 13 stipes into 4 Patriotic Napkins as we tip our hats (or should we say our summer bonnets…) to the original 13 colonies for Independence Day.  Reduce your carbon footprint, show your patriotism, and have fun weaving and using these quick and easy 4-shaft Napkins.

These instructions are for 2 thick and thirsty bath towels (finished size approximately 31” x 64”). Woven with soft 8/2 unmercerized cotton yarn, and a 4 or 8-shaft waffle weave structure, these towels have a delicious softness.  Treat yourself or your loved ones to some new towels.

Weave 4 spectacular pillow covers! The finished size of the pillow covers is about 18” x 17”.  Lee’s Surrender is an overshot pattern that uses 4 harnesses.  The pattern listed below comes from Marguerite Porter Davison’s book A Handweaver’s Pattern Book on page 184.

Weaving overshot is fun…you will weave with two shuttles.  One shuttle carries the pattern yarn, and the other shuttle carries the tabby or tie down yarn.

This overshot pattern is stunning! The finished size of these placemats are approximately 13.5” x 18.5”.  Lee’s Surrender is an overshot pattern that uses 4 harnesses.  The pattern listed comes from Marguerite Porter Davison’s book A Handweaver’s Pattern Book on page 184.

Weaving overshot is fun…you will weave with two shuttles.  One shuttle carries the pattern yarn, and the other shuttle carries the tabby or tie-down yarn.

We have paired our luscious American Maid™ Natural White Cotton yarn with a carefully curated collection of 4 colors of Maurice Brassard cotton yarns.  With each kit, you can create 4 stunning towels.  These towels will bring a burst of color to your kitchen or bath!

Welcome to Baja Mexico where the desert meets the Sea of Cortez! Cliffs of volcanic rock tower over gorgeous beaches in quiet coves where the water changes from brilliant turquoise in the shallows to deep blue in the depths. The pattern reflects the patterns of Mexican textiles. The pattern is bands of Summer and Winter, woven in Dukagang style.  Kit makes 4 placemats, approximately 13″ x 18″.  Choose either the Sand or Sea version.

Who wouldn’t want to reach for a fluffy, handwoven bath towel when you step out of the shower or bath?  These towels make great gifts, sure to impress even the most discerning of newlyweds! And, for the best part…they weave up quickly.   The towels come in either brown or green and are made from our own American Maid 100% Naturally Colored Cotton Yarn.   The kit makes 2 thick and thirsty bath towels (finished size approximately 31” x 64”). Woven with soft 8/2 unmercerized cotton yarn, and a 4 or 8-shaft waffle weave structure, these towels have a delicious softness.  Treat yourself or your loved ones to some new towels!

It is truly luxurious to wrap up in a fluffy, handwoven bath towel when you step out of the shower or bath.  These towels make great gifts, sure to impress even the most discerning of newlyweds! The towels come with soft natural white for the body of the towel, and you choose your favorite accent color from 10 Maurice Brassard colors to customize these towels!  And, for the best part…they weave up quickly.   The kit makes 2 thick and thirsty bath towels (finished size approximately 31” x 64”). Woven with soft 8/2 unmercerized cotton yarn, and a 4 or 8-shaft waffle weave structure, these towels have a delicious softness.  Treat yourself or your loved ones to some new towels!

I never really thought of using different colors for overshot before, but after feeling inspired by a group discussion, I decided to try it! I like it a lot and will probably do it again. The warp is pink, yellow, and blue. The tabby weft is the same rotation of pink, yellow, and blue, while…

This project was really popular when I posted it on Instagram, so I thought I would share it here also. It is a simple overshot pattern - with a twist. Also a great way to show off some special yarn. The yarn I used for my pattern was a skein of hand spun camel/silk blend. I wove the fabric on my Jack loom but you could also use your four or eight shaft loom.

Overshot is a weave structure where the weft threads jump over several warp threads at once, a supplementary weft creating patterns over a plain weave base. Overshot gained popularity in the turn of the 19th century (although its origins are a few hundred years earlier than that!). Coverlets (bed covers) were woven in Overshot with a cotton (or linen) plain weave base and a wool supplementary weft for the pattern. The plain weave base gave structure and durability and the woollen pattern thread gave warmth and colour/design. Designs were basic geometric designs that were handed down in families and as it was woven on a four shaft loom the Overshot patterns were accessible to many. In theory if you removed all the pattern threads form your Overshot you would have a structurally sound piece of plain weave fabric.

I was first drawn to Overshot many years ago when I saw what looked to me like "fragments" of Overshot in Sharon Aldermans "Mastering Weave Structures".

I wanted to use my handspun - but I only had a 100gms skein, I wanted to maximise the amount of fabric I could get using the 100gms. I thought about all the drafts I could use that would show off the weft and settled on overshot because this showcases the pattern yarn very nicely. I decided to weave it “fragmented” so I could make my handspun yarn go further. I chose a honeysuckle draft.

When doing the treadle tie-up I used 3 and 8 for my plain weave and started weaving from the left, treadle 3 - so you always know which treadle you are up to - shuttle on the left - treadle 3, shuttle on the right treadle 8. I then tied up the pattern on treadles 4,5,6 and 7. You can work in that order by repeating the sequence or you can mix it up and go from 4 to 7 and back to 4 again etc. You will easily see what the pattern is doing.

Woven by Rachel SnackWeave two overshot patterns with the same threading using this downloadable weave draft to guide you. This pattern features the original draft along with one pattern variation. Some yarns shown in the draft are available to purchase in our shop: 8/2 cotton, wool singles, 8/4 cotton (comparable to the 8/4 linen shown).

please note: this .pdf does not explain how to read a weaving draft, how to interpret the draft onto the loom, or the nuances of the overshot structure.

There were ten of us in the class, and we rotated, weaving a new sample at each loom. Marjie shared her knowledge of the patterns we sampled, and I came away with an even greater interest in this subject in addition to a binder filled with samples. There really is no greater way to learn than a hands-on workshop. I am already preparing to wind a warp for a dimity project. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

One interesting piece of information I learned is that overshot is a fairly modern term. Originally this type of weaving would have been referred to as floats or floatwork. It seems that many people are returning to this original terminology, though the weaving world has thus far shown little interest in making the change back. Personally, I like it. Floatwork sounds a bit less frenetic than overshot – as though I’m peacefully hitting my mark rather than missing it in a wild fashion.

Floatwork, formerly known as overshot which was originally known as floatwork, is a block design traditionally woven on four shafts where a heavier pattern yarn floats above a plain weave ground cloth and creates a raised pattern. Your plain weave background cloth is woven using a finer yarn in your warp and in every other weft pick (these weft picks being the ‘use tabby’ part of your pattern.)

This finer yarn is hidden in places by the thicker yarn floats, blended in places with the thicker yarn (as plain weave) creating areas that are shaded (referred to as halftone), and woven across itself to create delicate areas of plain weave. Most of us think of antique coverlets when we hear ‘overshot.’

Here is the thing about floatwork that really helped it to make sense for me. It is basically a twill weave. As Mary Black puts it, “An examination of an overshot draft shows it to be made up of a repetitive sequence of the 1 and 2, 2 and 3, 3 and 4, and 4 and 1 twill blocks”.

Let’s look at the pattern picks only. When weaving, your pattern blocks should overlap by one thread. This creates a pattern that flows from unit to unit instead of making a sharp step. It also means that the last thread of a given block is the first thread of the next block, and as you are initially threading your loom, your threads will move from odd shaft to even shaft.

Probably the trickier part of treadling is keeping track of where you are in the sequence. Like many traditional floatwork patterns, the pattern I used is meant to be woven tromp as writ or as drawn in. This means that your treadling is the same as your threading. So if your threading is 1-2-1-2-3-2-3-4, then your pattern picks are treadled 1-2-1-2-3-2-3-4. You will be throwing tabby picks after each pattern pick, so your actual treadling looks like (inthis example let’s consider your tabby picks to be ‘a’ and ‘b’) 1-a-2-b-1-a-2-b-3-a-2-b-3-a-4-b. If this looks a bit intimidating, don’t fret. At first it might feel that way, but the pattern really does start to make sense after you get going.

In the case of my draft, the threading sequence is 134 threads long. This is a lot to remember, but I used an index card to write out the sequence. I marked my place by sliding a second card down the pattern as I progressed, keeping it in place with a paperclip.

You can find it listed in the chapter or sub-chapter entitled ‘Notes on the Overshot Drafts.’ As someone who generally cheers on the underdog, I was drawn to this pattern without a name.

Atwater’s patterns are written for a sinking shed loom. For a rising shed loom, like the Baby Wolf I used, simply tie up the shafts left blank in the draft instead of the shafts she tells you to tie up. For all of her traditional floatwork patterns, including the pattern I used, this tie-up would be 3-4, 1-4, 1-2, 2-3. Your tabby tie up should be 1-3 and 2-4.

I washed this in my front-loading washing machine on the wool setting and air-dried it on the clothesline. There was a note in the book that No. 18 Name Unknown, and its friend No. 17, are “plain patterns and suitable for couch covers or the coverlet for a man’s room, rather than for more frivolous purposes”. Perfect. I’m not much for frivolous, and I had been looking for the perfect fabric to re-cover an old chair.

Here is a list of books and magazines that might be of interest if you’d like to learn more about floatwork/overshot. Many of these references include patterns in addition to thorough instructions.

If you have a particular interest in old coverlets, Eliza Calvert Hall’s A Book of Hand-Woven Coverlets and The Coverlet Book by Helene Bress are both interesting resources, the later being particularly thorough. I can only imagine the time and research that went into this pair of tomes. And if you are simply looking for patterns, The Handweaver’s Pattern Book by Marguerite Porter Davison and The Handweaver’s Pattern Directory by Anne Dixon are just for you.

Overshot: The earliest coverlets were woven using an overshot weave. There is a ground cloth of plain weave linen or cotton with a supplementary pattern weft, usually of dyed wool, added to create a geometric pattern based on simple combinations of blocks. The weaver creates the pattern by raising and lowering the pattern weft with treadles to create vibrant, reversible geometric patterns. Overshot coverlets could be woven domestically by men or women on simple four-shaft looms, and the craft persists to this day.

Summer-and-Winter: This structure is a type of overshot with strict rules about supplementary pattern weft float distances. The weft yarns float over no more than two warp yarns. This creates a denser fabric with a tighter weave. Summer-and-Winter is so named because one side of the coverlet features more wool than the other, thus giving the coverlet a summer side and a winter side. This structure may be an American invention. Its origins are somewhat mysterious, but it seems to have evolved out of a British weaving tradition.

Twill:Twill along with plain and satin weave is one of the three simple weave structures. Twill is created by repetition of a regular ratio of warp and weft floats, usually 1:2, 1:3, or 2:4. Twill weave is identifiable by the diagonal orientation of the weave structure. This diagonal can be reversed and combined to create herringbone and diamond effects in the weave.

Double Cloth: Usually associated with professional weavers, double cloth is formed from two plain weave fabrics that swap places with one another, interlocking the textile and creating the pattern. Coverlet weavers initially used German, geometric, block-weaving patterns to create decorative coverlets and ingrain carpeting. These coverlets contain twice the yarn and are twice as heavy as other coverlets.

Multi-harness/Star and Diamond: This group of coverlets is characterized not by the structure but by the intricacy of patterning. Usually executed in overshot, Beiderwand, or geometric double cloth, these coverlets were made almost all made in Eastern Pennsylvania by professional weavers on looms with between twelve and twenty-six shafts.

America’s earliest coverlets were woven in New England, usually in overshot patterns and by women working collectively to produce textiles for their own homes and for sale locally. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s book, Age of Homespun examines this pre-Revolutionary economy in which women shared labor, raw materials, and textile equipment to supplement family incomes. As the nineteenth century approached and textile mills emerged first in New England, new groups of European immigrant weavers would arrive in New England before moving westward to cheaper available land and spread industrialization to America’s rural interior.

Southern coverlets almost always tended to be woven in overshot patterns. Traditional hand-weaving also survived longest in the South. Southern Appalachian women were still weaving overshot coverlets at the turn of the twentieth century. These women and their coverlets helped in inspire a wave of Settlement Schools and mail-order cottage industries throughout the Southern Appalachian region, inspiring and contributing to Colonial Revival design and the Handicraft Revival. Before the Civil War, enslaved labor was often used in the production of Southern coverlets, both to grow and process the raw materials, and to transform those materials into a finished product.

I am attempting some upholstery fabric for the first time and decided on Brassard 8/2 cottolin for the warp and Harrisville Shetland for the weft. The structure is “Waldenweave” from Bertha Gray Hayes collection of miniature overshot…. I am developing a “thing” for overshot and really like all aspects of it.