Weave This || Off-Center Circle Weave Part 2

I really like making these free weave pattern “weave alongs” as I call them. I think they are a great way to learn weaving techniques and also end up with a beautiful weave at the end. I’m especially excited about this off-center circular weave, because it gives the weave a really organic feel.

In this pattern, I’m going to give you a general explanation of the stitches, since looms are different and we may have different number of warp threads you won’t need to follow along with an exact warp thread count. Just follow along with the basic idea of the stitches and if you’re weave doesn’t come out exactly like mine then that’s not a problem, because this weave design is very flexible and will look all the better with your own unique touch.

In today’s post is the second part to our off-center circle weave along (find part one here).

step 1|| in the last post we had just finished our round of soumak stitches. Continuing with your yarn (I am using a twisted cotton string), weave the plain (over/under) stitch around ¾ of your circle. Note that I’m weaving towards the more open side of the loom, where the warp thread center is further from the loom center. This is so that my weaving starts filling up that bigger space first.

step 2|| next weave back a row of the plain stitch ending it just before you get to where you started the first row. I ended mine with three warp threads left .

step 3|| weave back the other way, again stopping the row before you meet the previous row’s end. This time I ended my row with five warp threads left.

step 4|| make one more return row, that is again shorter then the previous row. My row ended with nine warp threads left. Tuck the yarn tail behind the loom and trim it to about 3 inches so that we can tuck it in later. The point to making these varying woven rows is that it will give your weave an organic shape and also help hid gaps between yarns.

step 5|| now I’m bringing in a wool yarn that is similar in color to my twisted cotton string (the yarns I used are listed in the shop this section at the bottom of the post). I find that when the colors are similar, but the texture is different it gives the weave more interest. It adds a new level of visual interest.

Starting the wool yarn at the end of row three and four, leave a 3 inch tail behind the weave and then weave in an over/under plain weave around the circle.

step 6|| I wove a plain weave around the circle just shy of twice. I then continued to plain weave, but less tightly then before and using my tapestry needle I lifted the yarn up a little above each warp thread. This gave some texture and depth to my woven rows and better shows off the fluff of the wool yarn.

step 7|| in this fluffy row, I did not weave around the circle a full round. Instead I stopped at the side of the top and then wove a fluffy row back down the opposite way. Again weaving loosely and fluffing each pass over the warp threads.

step 8|| I continued this fluffy row until I was about ¾ around the circle. Then wove a return tight row to “lock” in my fluffy row. Ending this new row with 4 warp threads left. I then trimmed my yarn tail to 3 inches and tucked it behind the weave.

step 9|| next I brought in a third yarn, this time a rust colored cotton yarn. To start the yarn I brought the thread under my weave and through the loop of my wool yarn (opposite side from where my wool yarn just ended) from the previous row. I pulled the rust colored yarn through the loop until I had 3 inches of yarn tail behind my weave. I then started weaving my rust colored yarn in the plain weave on the shorter side of the warp center.

By bringing my rust colored yarn through the wool loop, I’m making sure that I do not have a gap between the different threads when my weave is finished.

step 10|| I wove from the one fluffy wool row turn to the other fluffy wool row turn and then wove my rust colored yarn back again. I wove a third pass, but again stopped the row well before I reached the end of the previous row. I trimmed the yarn tail to 3 inches and tucked it behind the weave to deal with later in our finishing.