Exploring Circular Weaving

In a previous post, I showed how to warp a loom for circular weaving (post 1  and post 2). Since then I’ve been working at it and trying to figure out what works best for me. One thing I’ve found to be interesting is the large warp clump in the middle. As you know, with a normally warped lap loom, there is no over lapping of warp threads. So the thing I found myself doing was wondering how can I weave to take away from the clump and make it less noticeable.  And actually I like the look of the middle, but I don’t want it to be so apparent.

The first thing I found is, I like a few rounds of plain weave in the center. I tried some other weave techniques, but didn’t like how they turned out. This is because the warp threads are a bit dis-organized in the center and a plain weave helps align them.

I also noticed that because the warp threads are dis-organized, it was much better if I wove higher up on the warp threads and then pushed my weft down to the center. This way I wouldn’t get confused as to which warp thread was next.

A second discovery I made was that if I started with a thin thread, it wove much better in the middle. When I wove with worsted weight thread, I didn’t like how much the warp threads were showing in the middle, the worsted weight didn’t get as deep into the center as I had wanted. I ended up trying two different threads and found I like the outcome. The first was a thick and thin, hand-spun thread. I started with the thin part of the yarn and wove that around, while the yarn became thicker as I went. It worked really well and added visual interest. The second thread I used was a sock yarn, so it’s super thin.  When I normally weave with sock yarn, I will use multiple threads of it at once or combine it with another thread that compliments it, like a worsted weight. But for this circle weaving, I used just one piece of sock yarn thread. This worked really well in the center of my weave, it is so thin that it got very close to the center and I really liked how it turned out.  You can see an example of both threads below.

I’ll keep sharing more of the circle weaving as I go. Have you tried circle weaving yet? I’d love to hear what you think about it compared to normal weaving. Or if you haven’t tried it and aren’t really interested, let me know what you’re working on in the comments below.

Happy Weaving!

Kate

 

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