Weaving Techniques || Making Shapes with Weft Over

Today I experimented with a fun way to weave shapes and have texture in your weaves. The process I used is called weft over, because you pass your weft over numerous warp threads to make a design. There are a lot of options with this technique, you could create a solid shape using weft over, or you could make an outlined shape by passing over and then under numerous warp threads, and also you could pass under numerous warp threads to have a “negative” shape.

I decided to make an outlined diamond shape. I’ll walk you through how I made my shape, but feel free to experiment when you create your own weaves.

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 would love to see what you create with the weft over shapes. If you have a social media that you like to share your weaves on, link to it in the comments below. If you like the yarns I used I’ve include a Shop This Post with links at the bottom. Out of curiosity, do you normally weave with neutrals or lots of colors? I recently had a conversation with my husband about color choices (he’s a graphic designer) and he prefers neutrals and likes their classic style. Just based off this weave you would know I like colors, lol. I know there are a lot of color trends that come and go quickly, but I just feel energized by colors. I often weave with a combo of neutral and color, but I have been planning some only neutral weaves…that is if I can stick to not using color (yikes!). What is your preference and why?

Happy Weaving!

Kate

For more fun, follow me here ->