Keep in mind that I am happy with the finished project, it just wasn’t what it started out to be. No whining here.
I was excited to wind a warp for this overshot rug here. I shoulda known better than to try to get this done right on my Harrisville Rescue loom. A rug requires a firm (read: as hard as a grown-ass man can) beat. I have not the power nor the wrist stability. I have not the weighted beater. I have it on the wrong loom to even have a chance of it being a sturdy rug.
Let’s see. I wound the warp of 8/4 cotton carpet warp in natural. I have plenty of the same thread for the tabby weft. I ordered the 3-ply rug yarn in a marine blue in a generous amount. I am thrilled to be doing this project as I have admired it in Handwoven since the issue came out in March/April 2007. I have never woven overshot but that has never stopped me before. It is not my favorite weave structure but what the heck, I love a new thing. And I ended up liking the overshot process.
What did I realize?
1. I can wind a warp with 2 threads held together with my finger separating the threads and have the threads not twist.
2. I can get the warp on the loom in record time, making nary a mistake in the process.
3. I can tie the warp onto the front beam and even out the warp tension without stressing about it.
4. I can recognize that I have gone wrong with the tabby and can unweave and start over because it looks intuitively wrong.
5. I can read numerous resources and decide (thank you Mary Black and Mary M. Atwater) that I had started off with the wrong tabby shot. It made a difference.
6. I can realize this is a learning process and keep on with it in spite of realizing that it is not what it started out to be.
Wait. Go back to #6 and read it again. Yep. I knew it from the beginning and went on to spend time and materials weaving it anyway. And as I went along the beat was never right but it was consistent. The repeats measure the same size. I got 7 repeats instead of 10 on this warp length: the beat, the warp and tabby weft being a little fluffier than what was called for, the beat, the pattern weft being non-fuzzy and therefore not filling in the spaces well.
7. I should always wind an extra yard of warp just in case when working with something large like this rug.
8. Mary M. Atwater says that overshot rugs are usually too lumpy bumpy to be of any real use.
Here it is in a few pictures. It might make a good wall hanging.
9. And I can wind a ski shuttle to hold a huge amount of rug yarn.
10. I didn’t expect to like the actual weaving of overshot but I wanted to do it anyway. Know what? I liked it.
Project from Handwoven March/April 2007, pp. 32-34. Draft is Orange Peel from Josephine E. Estes, Miniature Patterns for Hand Weaving, Part I, 1956, p. 10.
