Best of Weaving Techniques || Making Shapes with Weft Over

Have you tried the weft over technique? This is one of favorite ways to make textures and shapes in weaves and it’s done by passing your weft over the warp threads to create the shapes. The weft over really sticks out on weaves and gives your weave dimension.

There are a lot of different shapes you can make with the weft over technique. For my weave, I passed the weft thread behind and over multiple warp threads to really make an interesting shape. It’s fun to really highlight the difference between the warp and weft threads. I created a “negative” space in my weaving by passing my weft threads behind the warp threads. When I pass the weft behind the warp threads they really pop out and when I pass the weft over multiple warp threads the weft threads pop out. It’s really fun to play around with. My favorite part about this weave is the colored warps being the main focus and using a neutral grey thread over it.  It’s a pop of bold color without being overwhelming.

To give you a better idea of the weft over technique, here is how I made the oval-diamond shape in my weave:

step 1| I started with a few woven rows in a design I wanted. Since I’ll be passing over numerous warp threads it’s best to have a plain weave row above the weft over in order to lock in the warp threads.

step 2| for my design I wove the plain weave until I got around the middle of my weave. I then passed my weft thread over 5 warp threads, then continued my plain weave.

step 3| on my pass back, I staggered my weft over to create the diamond shape. I wove the plain weave, then passed over 4 warp threads, under 3, and over 4 warps again.

step 4| for the next row, I staggered my weft over again so that it went over 3 warp threads, under 3, over 1, under 3, and over 3 warps.

step 5| the next row was over 3 warps, under 4, over 1, under 4, and over 3.

step 6| the row was over 3, under 5, over 1, under 5, over 3 warps.

step 7| now I staggered my weft overs to make the decrease of the diamond. This row mimics step 5 where I went over 3 warps, under 4, over 1, under 4, and over 3.

step 8| for this row I went over 3, under 3, over 1, under 3, and then over 3 warps.

step 9| I passed the weft over 4, under 3, then over 4

step 10| I passed the weft over 5 warps in the middle, to create the final row in my shape

step 11| I then wove some plain weave rows to lock in the warp threads

I love to see the steps laid out, it’s really fun to see how slight changes on how you weave between the warps makes a big difference when all put together.  If you’ve done some weft over weaving, I’d love to hear about it. Did you make a repeating pattern? Did you just make one shape like I did?

Happy Weaving!

Kate

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