Tag Archives: double weave

Playing With Layers

In July I’ll teach at Convergence 2022, a weaving and fiber arts conference that usually happens every two years. In 2020, the pandemic prevented our meeting so this year it will be four years since our last gathering. One of the classes I’ll teach is on a weave structure called “overshot-patterned double weave.”

Overshot is a weave structure, or group of patterns, beloved by weavers and textile enthusiasts for years. Ancient weavers used overshot to weave circle and curve patterns into lovely coverlets. I’ve woven lots of table runners using overshot, including the one shown below.

Detail of a traditional Mary Ann Ostrander overshot runner.

In overshot-patterned double weave, weavers take the pattern shorthand we use to weave overshot and adapt it to what is called double weave. In double weave there are two layers of cloth woven simultaneously, one under the other. In patterned double weave, the two layers contrast with each other, often in color, and the layers exchange. The structure is different, but the circles and curves that overshot produces still appear in the cloth. Below is a photo of fabric woven by adapting the Mary Ann Ostrander overshot pattern to patterned double weave.

Mary Ann Ostrander as Patterned Double Weave

Students in the class will be able to choose from three different patterns. The patterns are Mary Ann Ostrander; Je Länger, Je Lieber; and Blooming Leaf and you can see them below. You may notice that the back of each piece is the negative of the front. The top two samples were woven in purple and gold tencel thread. The bottom was woven in blue and aqua cotton thread.

Blooming Leaf as Double Weave

I have had fun designing and weaving overshot patterns converted into double weave patterns. I think the students in class will enjoy it, too.

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Double Weave Pick-up

I have been playing around lately with double weave-pick up. I taught a class in West Virginia on double-weave and had enough of my sampler warp left to practice the technique. It’s pretty time consuming and you have to really pay attention, much more so than when weaving scarves. I found the meditative quality pleasant.
In double weave the loom is set up so that two layers of cloth are woven simultaneously, one above the other. If you want, you can form an image by hand-manipulating how the two layers of cloth interact. This is called double weave pick-up. When you weave double weave pick-up, you use a stick to pick up some threads from the bottom layer and weave them into the top layer, then pick up other threads to weave top layer threads into the bottom layer. Below you can see part of my process and a couple of finished pieces.
I used 10/2 cotton threaded at 32 ends per inch (16 ends per inch in each layer). The colors were deep purple and red-orange. When the colors are next to each other they read as orange and blue. As a side note, I wove some of these pieces while UVA was winning the NCAA basketball championship. Their colors are orange and blue–go ‘Hoo’s!

Here I have picked up the purple threads to keep them on top.

Picking the purple threads

I have raised the half of the orange threads and the selected purple threads stay up while I weave with orange.

Weaving orange while selected purple threads are raised

Here I have picked up the orange threads.

Picking up the orange threads

Here I have raised half of the purple threads. The selected orange threads stay above while I weave with purple thread.

Selected orange threads stay above while half of the purple threads are raised.

This is how I keep track of where I am.

Keeping track

This is the finished piece.

The finished piece (8″ X 8″)

Here's one of the finished pieces.

Another finished piece (8″ X 8″)

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