Maltese Cross Overshot

Now that I am obsessed with overshot, I thought I'd share my latest endeavor; Maltese Cross.

Here is the draft......

I warped 205 ends of 3/2 pearl cotton at 10 epi. I used the cotton for the tabby weft and Kauni yarn for pattern weft.

I've got to work on a more even beat, but all in all, I'm really happy with it. 

Happy Weaving!

Adventures in Overshot - Take 2

My last post, Adventures in Overshot-take 1, was started last month when this idea was in its infancy. When I posted it yesterday, it was dated 11/1 so you may need to go back to see what I'm talking about. Anyway, when I left off, I was 1/2 way through threading. I've since woven a piece that came off the loom at 17" x 45". Pretty good for a 1st real attempt at overshot, but far from perfect. 

I had to beat so hard that I moved the loom halfway across the room and it still wasn't square. My beat was also not even. After a trip to the yarn store to get some input (Twist Knitting & Spinning in Lahaska, PA) we deduced that my sett was way too tight at 15 epi. I re-sleyed the warp at 10 epi. 

That added about 7 inches in width. I'm still using a firm beat, but not nearly as hard as before. 

I realized, while weaving the 1st piece, that I had a missing thread. Before I re-sleyed the reed, I added a string heddle and the missing warp thread. 

It's looking nice and even. I'm now using Cascade 220 as pattern weft. It looks good now so I'm hoping that wet finishing will full the wool a bit and then it will look great! 

I'm always one to see how many completely different pieces I can get off one warp so this afternoon I'm going to finish off the warp in Monk's belt. 

Happy Weaving!

Amazing Weaving Draft - Take 2

Ok, after a bit more research on crackle, I decided to try again. I used the Ralph Griswold pattern again. This time I threaded at 8/8 cotton at 10 epi and used 4 repeats of the pattern. I wove tromp as writ using 8/8 cotton as weft

Success!!!!! Sort of.

Now to add the tabby.

My 1st attempt was with the warp cotton as the tabby weft and Bernat Roving as the pattern weft. 

It looks and feels great, but now the design is skewed vertically instead of horizontally, as is was with my 1st attempt at this pattern. 

For the 2nd attempt I used 8/8 cotton for pattern weft. 

I love it!!! I'll post pics of the finished pieces soon. 

Here is little experiment I tried. I was messing around with tie ups and after about 2 inches of weaving, I saw it wasn't working and decided to start a new piece. I cut the pattern threads to see what the fabric would look like.

Apart from the weft tail hidden in there and me moving it around when I pulled the threads, it's a nice even plain weave. I always wanted to try that!

Happy Weaving!

Amazing Weaving Draft

I have had this pattern saved for a while. It pops up on Pinterest every other day or so, so I guess other people like it too. On Handweaving.net you can find it as:

Weaving Draft: xcooo81, Crackle Design Project, Ralph Griswold, United States, 2004, #14103. 

I've been planning to do this in an 8/8 cotton, but I waited for over a month for the order. I couldn't wait any longer. I bought 4 skeins of Cascade Ultra Pima and threaded it at 8 epi. I did 3 repeats of the pattern threading. Various DK weight knitting yarns were used as weft. 

What a great pattern!!!! Using these yarns and this sett, was, as I mentioned, not what was originally planned for this project. Because my sett was so open, the design is a bit different from the original, but still very awesome. After threading the warp, you'll have the pattern in your head. After a few repeats of the pattern with the weft, you might not even need to look at the draft anymore. 

As luck would have it, when I was finishing the last bit of this warp, the long awaited cotton finally arrived. I guess I'll just have to weave it again 😀here