I’ve talked about weaving with a set design in mind or weaving with a more organic design before and each time I bring this up, at least a few people ask me what I mean by when I say an organic design. This weave I made is a good example of what I mean. To make it, I picked out the roving and the navy blue yarns and had 4 other “maybe” yarns on the side. I also had a basic idea in mind, the weave would have a base color of navy blue and a lot of roving, but otherwise I had no design plan.
I wove this piece starting out as I had described, with a general idea. As I went I would briefly pause here and there to take in the general look of the weave and then continued randomly add the yarns as it felt right. I like to think that this weave more or less wove itself and I was just along for the ride.
I really like to weave in this way, because it allows me to have the most enjoyment. I don’t have pressure on myself to create something specific and I’m open to experiment with shapes and colors as I go. It doesn’t always go smoothly and I do end up stuck sometimes. And like I mentioned before I occasionally break up this way of weaving with a very strictly designed weave as a mental break (it’s funny how that works).
This weave is a continuation of me playing around with texture and seeing what I could make with it. For the roving, I just did a plain weave (which I explain how to do that with roving here) and wove the roving back and forth along the warp strings. I also added some different purple colored threads with their own textures of loops and soumak.
This weave reminds me of a bunch of grapes, but it reminded my mom of a rolling thunder head. I loved that this weave can be interpreted differently depending on who is viewing it, which I think happened because I didn’t have a specific design in mind when I made it.
Have you woven in a more organic way? Or do you prefer to have a set design when weaving? Or maybe you do a little of both? I love to hear what you’re working on.
Happy Weaving!
Kate
Elisa Storer
March 8, 2016 at 1:49 pmWow !
That is one good looking piece….
Absolutely love your messages, they are very helpful……
Thanks so much
Elisa Storer
Kate
March 8, 2016 at 1:55 pmThank you Elisa for your kind words 🙂
Sona Nast
March 8, 2016 at 2:27 pmI like to weave organically too. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever had a fully thought out plan when I’ve done my weaves. I love receiving your posts and have utilized your tutorials a number of times.
Kate
March 9, 2016 at 2:03 pmHi Sona, it is much more fun to not plan it 🙂 I’m so happy you’re enjoying my posts!
Kerrie
March 8, 2016 at 4:30 pmLove to learn from you each week. Can you please tell me what the stitch is that you used in the navy background?
Kate
March 9, 2016 at 11:13 amHi Kerrie, thanks! The navy blue is done in the plain weave. My warp is white and I’m weaving two threads of the navy blue with each pass, so the warp thread shows through 🙂
Kerrie
March 9, 2016 at 3:10 pmThanks so much! From the picture the white looked like holes in the weave. Will have to give this a go.
judy leffler
April 15, 2016 at 8:58 pmWhen your weaving the plain weave then do you go with the roving randomly first or the soumak and loops then put the roving in? Seems like it would be hard to put the loops and soumak in after the roving? Just trying to get a feel for which would be easiest to do first. On my second piece now and already ripped out the rya at the bottom and replaced the void with ribbon. I was reading about the hem stitch and should have read more carefully before beginning because now I have to go back and put in more plain weave to do that at the bottom so I’ll have a long tail to work with. Live and learn. thanks!
Kate
April 16, 2016 at 9:30 amSorry you had to ripe rows out Judy. I’m trying to remember what I did, but I’m pretty sure I put the roving in first and a few rows of plain weave after, that are covered by the rovings fluff and then did the loop and or soumak, followed by more plain rows. I like to have my warp strings as open as possible so that I can weave the roving using my hands to separate the warps. I hope that makes sense.
judy leffler
April 16, 2016 at 10:24 amYes, that helps me alot! thanks
In My Weaving Bag || Essential Weaving Supplies | The Weaving Loom
May 3, 2016 at 2:52 pm[…] with the design process. As you may know, I’ve talked about how I weave with a general idea of a finished weave in mind and make changes as I go. There have been many times when I will be in the middle of a weave and will pull out some yarn I […]