Converting Overshot Patterns To Summer & Winter

The I love to weave overshot and I also love summer & winter. I thought I'd combine the two. The John Landes collection of patterns by Mary Atwater, gives threading a for both overshot and summer & winter for most of the patterns. Those patterns were the inspiration for my latest experiment.

I decided to make a few wraps. I used "Periwinkle", a miniature overshot pattern by Josephine Estes, as my profile draft. It is a great little overshot pattern and it's fun to weave. Here is the threading...

To convert the design to summer and winter, you will thread each square in the overshot design as a 4 thread summer & winter block. For example, the twill border, threaded for overshot, would be 4,3,2,1. For summer & winter it would be 1,6,2,6; 1,5,2,5; 1,4,2,4; 1,3,2,3. Here is the draft....

I threaded 5/2 cotton in natural for the warp, sett 15epi. I used various colors of 5/2 as tabby weft and alpaca from Galler Yarns as pattern weft.

Here is the result....

The overshot version of Periwinkle as compared to the summer & winter version.

Same warp, but using a different treadling and color scheme; "winter" side

A view of the "summer" side 

I can not wait to get these wraps off the loom!!!! 

Happy Weaving!

John Landes #2 In Linen; the weaving

So I managed to somehow thread 467 ends on 6 shafts with no threading errors and only one broken warp! Can I get an Amen?! 

Once I wove an inch or two, I realized that I was in for a challenge. The linen was sooooo stiff!!! I made an impromptu bobbin humidor with an air tight container and a jar of warm water. I left the pre-wound bobbins in the container overnight and in the morning the linen was much more workable. I also misted the warp with water as I was weaving. 

My 1st sample used blue wool as pattern weft. I wanted to be able to throw the finished pieces into the washer & dryer, so I switched to a dark purple 5/2 cotton for the pattern weft and a lilac colored 16/2 linen for the tabby weft. The color combination of the natural colored warp with the dark & light purple weft is very interesting. On the "winter" side of the fabric, the mixing of the lilac & natural threads is very subtle, while on the "summer" side it seems much bolder. I'm so enthralled by summer and winter, especially now that I have the eight shaft loom. I may be wrong, but to me, the definition of the weave is more complex with more blocks. 

The last piece was woven all in linen with the Bockens 16/2 warp yarn used as tabby weft and  Euroflax by Louet in navy blue as pattern weft. For the 1st piece, I followed the draft exactly as written. Because of the difference in the epi and ppi the piece and the motifs are rectangular. For the second piece, I tried to square the design a bit by eliminating an entire star motif at the beginning and end and also reducing the number of picks in the center motif. The fabric itself is still a bit rectangular but the motifs are more balanced. 

My warp was WAY too short. I was lucky to get two pieces out of it. 

I'll share some pictures of the finished two pieces soon. For now, here is what I'm weaving at present.....

...4 shaft overshot converted to 6 shaft (3 color) summer & winter. I can't wait to share the finished product!!!!

Happy Weaving!!!!! 

Overshot, Rose Fashion

Still working off that 11 yard warp, I decided to play around a bit. I decided to weave off the rest in rose fashion. I corrected my threading error and changed the threading on the end to work with the "rose" pattern. I also added a twill border, 2 repeats of 4 threads on either side. 

Here is the draft......

My tie up was : 4&3, 3&2, 2&1, 4&1 and using treadles 5 & 6 for tabby.

Here is a piece using Kauni yarn as pattern weft.......

I really have to get a better replacement pin for my temple ;)

This piece has a dk weight alpaca/wool knitting yarn as pattern weft.....

I'm trying to finish this warp, but as you can see, it's quite chilly at the loom today. 

Hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow. Up next, summer & winter scarves.

Happy Weaving!