We talked about twining before and I wanted to try it on a circular weave. Twining is when you use two pieces of thread and twist them around the warp threads. The thing I like about twining is it makes a tight structure around the warp threads but is also flexible enough that you can move the threads around to change the look.
I had taken a break on this weave because I wasn’t sure where to go next with it, but adding the twining helped give it a more finished look. I was thinking of adding more rows, but just the one row looked really nice to me. Oh and if you’re wondering about how I made the middle of the weave, I wrote about it first in this post and then added more in this post.
I’ve done a post on twining before. In that post I show how to do it on a normal vertically warped loom and I also use two different colored threads, which makes an interesting look. I did for a second consider doing a black and white thread, but I felt that using two white threads matched my weave much better. You can decide which works best for what you’re making.
Here are my steps for the twining:
step 1| taking two long threads, I tied then in a knot together leaving a 3 inch tail. This knot is temporary, so don’t tie it too tight. It will be used as an anchor for twining the threads.
step 2| bring one thread under the first warp thread (we’ll call this thread #1) and the other over the first warp thread (we’ll call it thread #2). You can see how the knot we tied is anchoring the threads around the warp, so that as we do our twining we don’t completely pull our threads out (which I’ve done before, it’s not fun).
step 3| next twist the two threads around each other (the twist will be in between the warp threads), then bring thread #1 over the next warp thread and thread #2 under the next warp thread. Twisting the threads before you move onto the next warp thread is what helps secure them, it also makes the twining effect.
step 4| continue to twist the threads around your warp threads until you reach where you want to stop. If you’re filling in your weave, you can finish the twining by un-tying your anchor knot and tucking the threads in the back of the weave, as you normally would. For my weave, I’m leaving the warp threads exposed so I tied a double knot in the front of my warp threads with the one set of weft threads and then tied a double knot in the back of my warp threads with the other set of weft threads. Doing this gave me a small knot that I think has a nice delicate look. My best advice is to experiment and do what works best with your design. There are a lot of different approaches to weaving, which is why I love it so much.
Have you recently tried something new with your weavings? I’d love to hear about it.
Happy Weaving!
Kate
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