Let’s say you want to design a weaving pattern but don’t know how to go about it. First let’s decide what kind of pattern you want to design—a textured pattern or a figure (e.g. heart, diamond…).
Single Heart Outline, Solid Heart, Cross My Heart 3
By no means do I consider myself an expert adviser on the subject of making patterns pop. I’ve made a lot of squares—enough to know that there are no rules, or if there are, they elude me. If I say, “Use high contrast,” along comes a pattern to defy that rule—it’ll show up better in two subtle tints of the same color. (I have such a square in my collection, but can’t readily lay hands on it.) And don’t get me started on “Use complementary colors”—that rarely works.
Because I have too many squares and it’s been waaaay too long since I looked at most of them, I’ve decided to limit my subject today to the topic of using variegated yarn in pattern weaves.
First, let me say I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE variegated yarn, but I think it looks best in plain weave squares.
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This is the first in a series on selecting yarn appropriate for use on Weave-It style pin looms (this includes Hazel Rose Multi, Weavette, Wunderwag, Zoom, and other similar looms).
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Who doesn’t love cotton? It can be super tough to use on a pin loom though.
Weavers need to realize there’s a thing called take-up. Each time you add a new weft row, the warp threads all have to bend the slightest amount around it—that’s take-up. If you’ve warped your loom tightly, there won’t be room for take-up, even if your yarn is stretchy. Cotton yarn is characteristically non-stretchy, and worsted weight 100% cotton is one of the more difficult yarns to use on the pin loom.
Woven with I Love This Cotton color 52 “Forest”
Continuing from the previous post — more patterns for the 2″ square loom.
Diamond Outline
Back in August I developed a new technique I call “Reverse Warping Method,” or RWM. It entails starting the warping process at Cr4, instead of Cr1. In effect L4 becomes L1 and the usual L1 becomes the weaving layer.
My first attempt with RWM was a plain weave square. The only discernible difference was that I ended up with a longer tail at Cr1 than usual; Cr4’s tail was shorter.
Horizontal Xs — traditional 3LW (left) and RWM (right)
Since people are starting to receive their Wunderwag pin loom sets, I figured I’d better get busy designing some patterns for that size. Actually a lot of the 4″ textural patterns can be woven on the 6″, but not all. For example, “Horizontal Xs” doesn’t work on the 6″ loom without modification. It has to do with the number of pins. I’m truly out of my depth here with the terminology. Some patterns are divisible by 4 and some by 2. The 2s work on the 2″, 4″, and 6″ loom, but not the 4s. 4s work on the 4″, 8″, 12″, etc.
6″ squares
Topical Guide
I Love Pin Loom Weaving!
My intent here is to link to informative previously written posts. Most of these are from Windsweptmind.com; the posts there often have fanciful names, so it can be difficult to locate what you might be looking for. If you want instructions on how to use a bias loom with the three-layer warping method, for example, see the topic “Bias Looms” below. Read More →
The X Stitch is generally located in the very center of the square, but it can be placed anywhere.
X, or Knot, Stitch located in the center of a 2″ square