Someone on the Facebook Pin Loom Weaving Support Group asked me the difference between single-layer warping (1LW) and two-layer warping (2LW): Why couldn’t you lay all the warps side by side instead of going through the two-layer process?

Reasonable question. After all, wouldn’t you prefer to have the top and bottom edges match the side edges? (With 2LW you get the characteristic Weave-It scallop along the top and bottom edges of your square while the sides look more like wire wrapping a post.)

I laid out a square with all the warps side by side and counted to make sure I had 31. In hindsight, I could have moved the warp at Cr3 over to the second pin. I also could have tried warping beginning at Cr4 or Cr3 or Cr2 … or even one of the sides (it’s like anarchy, isn’t it, when you abolish the rules?) I didn’t like the unvertical way it looked, but it’s interesting that weaving begins at Cr4—if you don’t tie on a second color. If you do tie on a second color, you could add it at any corner (more anarchy!).

Single-layer warping

I chose to tie color two onto the 1-2 edge of the loom and begin the weaving at Cr2. I realize now that was a mistake. I should have started at Cr3 because I already know how to wrap the pins. By beginning at Cr2 I was unsure about pin wrapping, though I knew I would finish at Cr3. I counted, guessed, and started weaving. (It turned out fine.)

Second color’s tail is tied out of the way and I’m ready to begin weaving at Cr2.

Because I decided to work in the L1 tails as I wove, I had to do some maneuvering to get it to work (half-figure-eights at Cr1 and Cr4).

As I wove, both warp and weft were skewed. The weft is also skewed in 2LW, but it seemed more skewed in 1LW. (This is probably my imagination.)

I chose to weave a pattern newly designed by me (this is why you’re never supposed to try a new recipe when company is expected) and I think its complicatedness heightened my sense that the weft was extra-skewed. (Pattern courtesy of Handweaving.net.)

The warps in this pattern kept getting pulled out of kilter, and I wondered if it might be better as an overshot-alike weaving. (Haven’t done any of that in almost two years, so another re-adventure awaits.) Remind me to warp in a light color and weave in a dark color if I want the pattern to look the same as it was designed. The outcome is interesting, but not what I expected.

Finished square still on the loom

Every now and then, as I was weaving this unusual square, I had the feeling that I was running with the big dogs. Don’t tell my pin looms I said this, but sometimes I think of them as junior looms. I love ’em and I’m amazed by their capabilities, so it’s OK to be a junior loom. I’m intimidated by the more complicated looms.

Intimidated, yes, but also attracted.

Finished square, front and back

 

(Please visit Handweaving.net for a nearly limitless supply of patterns you can try on your junior looms—using either 1LW or 2LW.)

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