Weaving Techniques || The Chevron Weave

While playing with patterns I decided to do a chevron pattern weave. This is very similar to a twill except after a few rows you reverse the pattern evenly so that an arrow type shape is created.

**UPDATE** I just made a video on how to weave the chevron pattern, so check it out!

To make my chevron pattern I passed the weft thread over two warp threads and then under two warp threads, repeating this pattern across the weave (Confused over the weaving terms? See this post here). I did this for 5 rows so that diagonal shapes were created, at the 6^th row I reversed the pattern so that the diagonal changed directions in the next 4 rows.

Here is a simple graph of what I’m talking about. The pink color is the weft passing over the warp and the white color is the warp showing as the weft passes under it.

And here is a picture of it with my yarns.  The first picture shows the weft separated to better show how the weft passes over and under the warp.  The second picture shows what it looks like with the threads pushed down.

I think this chevron pattern would look nice as a boarder to a weave or even as just a random spot of texture.

I got a really great question about how the weft passes over the warp at the end, so I’m adding some additional information.  As I explained above to create my chevron pattern I was passing the weft over two warps and then under two warps, but what happens when you come to the last warp on an uneven number? In the picture below I separated and have numbered my weft threads for the pink color. I wove these bottom to top and started right to left, so that bottom weft with the number 1 is the first row I wove.

Row 1 – I followed my pattern of under two warps then over two warps across the weave.

Row 2 – As I came back with the weft from left to right I ended on an “odd” warp so I only went under one warp thread and then brought the weft over the warp to begin row 3.

Row 3 – This row worked out evenly with two over and two under.

Row 4 – This row got uneven so I ended only over one warp and then brought the weft under for row 5.

Row 5 – This row worked out evenly with two under and two over.

Row 6 – Uneven row, ended with only one over and went under to start row 7. This is the row that I start to reverse my diagonal, so row 6 matches row 4

Row 7 – In this row since I have to continue my diagonal reverse, I have only one pass over two warp threads. Row 7 begins with an under the warp and then does just one over the warp before it picks the two under two over pattern. If I were to follow the pattern completely then row 7 should start with two over passes of the warp, but with row 6 ending with an over my weft would be floating, so I need to pass the weft under at the beginning of row 7.

Row 8 – This row ends uneven with just one pass under the warp.

Row 9 – This row is similar to row 7, if the pattern were followed completely it should start with two weft passes under the warp, but with row 8 ending under the weft would be floating so I had to bring it over and then pass under in row 9.

Hopefully this explains what I did, but my best advice is to not think too hard about it. Follow the pattern in the main section of your weave and at the ends do what you have to to keep the weft secure.

What do you think of the chevron pattern? For me I feel like playing with pattern helps me better understand how the weft and warp interact. Even if I don’t directly incorporate patterns into my wall hangings, it always helps to experiment and learn.

 

Happy Weaving!

Kate

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