Weaving Techniques || More Weaving Roving

Last week’s post on twinning roving got me thinking about other patterns I could make with it. I love the look of roving done in a “braided” weave, but I was wondering what other ways of weaving it would look like.

My first attempt at a new look was to try and weave each row slight off-set from the one before it. I wasn’t sure what this would look like exactly, but I gave it a try.

After I wove 2rows of plain weave using yarn that matched my roving, I wove my first roving row using the soumak weave:

step 1: I passed my weft thread over four warp threads on the right side of the loom

step 2: at the fourth warp, I lifted the warp up with my one hand and with the other I passed the roving under and around the fourth warp so that my roving finished above the warp again.

step 3: next I brought my roving over the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh warps, then looped it under and around the seventh warp.

step 4: I repeated this pattern until I reached the end of my warp threads.

step 5: on the return back I passed my warp thread over and under the end thread and then went over four warp threads and looped around it. I continued passing over 4 warps and looping around the last one, but this time since I went under that end warp thread, my soumak is slightly shifted over. This made my roving “bumps” staggered.

step 6: after I completed this second row I wove three rows of plain weave with some yarn, so that my warp threads would be secured and lock in the roving that I had already woven. This yarn is hidden between my rows of roving, so it’s just for adding structure to my weave, but I still picked a yarn that matches the color of my roving.

step 7: using the same technique, I added two more rows of the staggered roving.

As you can see I, kept my soumak at the same angle in each row so the “bumps” all face in a downward direction.

This does look different then the “braided” roving where the two rows of roving bumps turn towards each other to create the braid look, but it didn’t really turn out the way I thought it might. Which I guess is the fun in experimenting. I kind of thought the staggering would look differently, but it’s still an interesting look. I’m going to have to try something else to see if I can make it look more like what I had originally pictured, maybe all I have to do is make a small change?  We’ll see!

Along with trying again, I have a few more techniques I wanted to try with the roving to see how they look with this fluffy material. It’s really interesting to see how the roving changes how the stitches look compared to when they are done with yarn that isn’t so bulky.

As always, if you have a question about weaving with roving, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer it.

Happy Weaving!

Kate

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