Weaving Techniques || Twining Wool Roving

I’ve covered the technique of twining before. It’s the process of weaving and twisting two threads around your warp threads and it creates a twisted rope-like look that stands out from your warp threads.

This week I tried twining with some wool roving and I really like how it looks. Roving can be hard to work with because it easily pulls apart and the more you mess with it the more it’s fibers will stick out and look messy.

Because of this I first warped my loom and then I worked in the roving. Later I will add rows of yarn to my weave. Working in this order lets me have the most flexibility with the roving. I can easily pull my warp threads up to create a big shed space to pass the roving through, whereas if I were to weave my yarn first then the yarn would limit the amount of shed I could create for my roving. The roving would then rub against the warp threads more and cause the fibers to pull out making the roving look messy.

So once my loom was warped, these are the steps I followed:

step 1| separate or cut two long pieces of roving. The pieces should be the same length. Make the length of the roving about 4 inches longer then what you need. This leaves you with ends that you can tuck in later when finishing your weave.

step 2| put one piece of roving under the first two warp threads. We’re going to put it under two warp threads, because the roving is so bulky and we want to give it room on the loom. Take the second piece of roving and place it over the first four warp threads and under the fifth and sixth warp threads. Again we are skipping over so many warp threads because of the roving’s bulk, we want the roving to have enough space to fill and not force it into a small area.

step 3| next twist the two threads around each other by pulling roving piece #1 down over roving piece #2. Put roving #1 over the next two warp threads and then under two warp threads.

step 4| repeat this pattern by twisting roving piece #2 down over roving piece #1 and then put roving #2 over two warp threads then under two warp threads. Continue twisting and weaving your roving until you have reached the point where you want to stop.

For my weave I kept my twining going and pushed it around my loom until I had some shapes. Next I’ll fill in the warp threads with yarn. This will lock in the roving that I wove and in the end I’ll have a solid weave.

If you’re looking for tips on how to finish wool roving by tucking in the ends, I wrote about it here.

I really like the twisted look with the roving, it’s makes for a really fluffy look. Do you use wool roving a lot in your weaves? If so do you have any tips for working with it? I often cut my roving to lengths that I want. I know it can be pulled apart, but when I try that it gets messier then I’d like. Although, there might be a trick to the pulling apart that I’m missing so it’s always nice to hear from other’s experiences.

Happy Weaving!

Kate

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