Overshot Scarf

 Between instructional Band Weaving videos, I decided to do a scarf in overshot to continue my quest of using up my stash so as to move on to natural fibers. The plan was simple. I had two skeins of acrylic and polyester yellow and one in a darker gold. Perfect! So the plan was:

12” x 60” plus fringe. At 15 epi (ends per inch) 191 warp + floating selves es

Entire piece in Maltese Cross Overshot pattern - J. Estes miniatures book 2 from handweaving.net, docs.

Best laid plans don’t always work out. Turned out 10” in I realized I didn’t have enough weft fiber, so....I had to rethink the pattern. Half way through I thought I had calculated wrong so pulled out 8” and added 6” of brown before weaving the center again. It turned out beautiful surrounded by 1 1/4” of gold plain weave. Then another 20 3/4” of brown and another 1 1/4” band of gold and the three repeats of the overshot pattern, only two repeats were possible in the same length as the beginning due to the tension situation. I found out that I couldn’t hold the tension on the end of the warp. So the back end is not the same as the beginning. I also didn’t look at my notes before making the change in length at the center. I won’t make that mistake again. Waste on this was only 4”. Which I would normally be really happy about as I don’t like wasting material, but I now know it’s necessary to keep the tension even at the end.

Even with the errors, I learned quite a bit and it is pretty I think.

I do have a technique to share with you. When I’m going to have fringe I like to use this finish. So I also start And finish with this crochet edge. At the beginning it also helps even out the gaps in the warp.

Start with a slip knot. Your yarn will be held on the opposite side of the weaving from the crochet hook. Then crochet a line across the warp. Do it up near the reed so it goes on nice and even and smooth. Not to tight; you don’t want to change the width of the warp. I put 3 warp threads between each crochet stitch. Use the reed to gently pull the crochet line down to the fell line (front edge of the weaving)  If you use a contrasting color it looks really great! When your project is finished, tie the fringe by taking two or three sets of threads for each fringe knot.  Take a look at the contrasting line by the fringe. (Below)

here is how it turned out.