I am working on a new overshot coverlet. The draft is from the Helen Bress Book of Coverlets (#258). The pic above is what I'm going for, worked up in iWeavIt.
This is what is weaving up on my loom in the initial sampling/testing trial phase.
It's very elongated on the vertical plain in real life. If I add the tabby in iWeaveIt, it's even longer and more out of proportion. The aspect ratio for the square within the circle is 3 to 4 inches. It should be more like 3 to 3 inches to be square.
What can I do to make the motifs square?
- I am already using 20/2 cotton for the tabby against 10/2 warp (Normally, you'd use the same size yarn for the tabby in overshot.)
- The pattern yarn is a sport weight single wool yarn in teal.
- I'm using a 12-dent reed with 2 ends per slot.
- If I mess with the pattern draft (ie removing a few lines in the middle of the circle to make it square), then the Xs won't line up across the pattern.
- Should I use an even thinner thread for the tabby?
- I don't think beating harder is the answer. It's pretty compact as it is.
- Or do I just resolve to like the elongated pattern I'm getting? [Don't worry about the missed dents -- I've already fixed that error.]
I asked weavers in several FaceBook Weaving Groups what to do to square up that motif in real life so that it looks like the anticipated draft. The collective wisdom advised the following:
1) Cut it off the loom and wet-finish it. It may settle out the way I want it to without any further changes needed.
Here is the sample freshly cut off the loom, showing the elongated circle and squares.
I cut this sample in half, and washed (wet-finished) half of it to compare with the original.
2) Try a wider sett. For instance, if I'm using 24 epi in a 12-dent reed with this result, try 20 or 18 epi instead. For 20 epi, this would mean a 10-dent reed with 2 threads per slot. The pattern thread needs more space to do it's thing.
Why this solution won't work in this case: I tried this on iWeaveIt, and it did not seem to make a noticeable difference in the virtual draft. So why go through the work of re-sleying? Also -- I don't have the weaving width available to make it wider on this loom, unless I cut out one of the three pattern repeats -- and that would be wasting too much warp and too much time.
3) Cut a few of the pattern shots to square up the motif. For instance try 2 or 3 shots of teal instead of the 4 mapped out in the draft, especially in the square within the circle motif.
Here I highlighted the lines with that square within the circle, just so I knew I was changing the right elements in iWeaveIt.
This was sort of a partial solution. It DOES make the square smaller, but it skews the diagonals going across the full motif if I didn't change anything with the stars.
4) Cut 1 pattern shot out of every quarto on the treadling. This approach preserves the diagonals and the pattern aspect. The proposed changes happen in the treadling without having to mess with sett or anything else in the horizontal plain. This was my husband's idea.
- 4 pattern shot repeats > 3
- 8 pattern shot repeats > 6
Here is Sample 2 freshly cut off the loom with this modification.
- You can see the diagonals are contiguous through the stars, circle and center squares.
- The center square is much closer to being square. It could use a little more tweaking but this is close enough for me!
Here, I've taken the modified Sample #2, cut it in half and washed, or wet-finished, the left half to see how that would change things. The right half has NOT been wet-finished and is still freshly cut off the loom. As expected, the sample on the left shrunk up a bit with wet-finishing, making the square in a circle just a bit more compact.
Looks pretty close to the draft I was going for!
The pattern repeat (without the top row of stars) is also about 2-1/2 inches shorter than the first version, which is a significant reduction!
Here are a few other suggestions fellow weavers offered:
5) Try a thinner wool yarn for the pattern.
Why this won't work in this case: I've already invested in this Sport Weight singles wool yarn from Maritime Fibers. Singles are hard to find as it is ... and I like the way it sampled in the Wandering Vine Coverlet last year.
It's a good thought to keep in mind for future coverlets, though.
Here's a good example of how the singles wool yarn puffs up and expands once it's wet-finished.
The Left side is wet-finished compared to fresh off the loom on the Right side.
It's exactly the effect I was after!
Singles are not so good for knitting as they don't have the structure or strength of a multi-strand yarn. But for weaving overshot, the singles are given the architecture, structure and stability of the tabby web that holds it in place and keeps it from fraying or breaking. That way, it can do the job it was intended to do: Creates air pockets to keep a body warm in cold winters.
6) Try an even thinner tabby thread -- as in sewing thread.
I saved some gray thread from my mom's quilting stash just for something like this. Although I don't think I'm going to go this route, it nice to know it's another option in the quest for square motifs in overshot.
Here's another minor issue that appears upon initial sampling. I skipped a few slots in the reed. In the weaving, it looks like a run in knit stockings. Although it might even out after wet-finishing as things do shrink to fill the space, I didn't want to take that chance -- Although that is another [purpose of sampling right on through the wet-finishing stage. To be complete, I should cut the samples off and wet-finish them to test the shrinkage, too.
The Fix: Rather than re-sleying everything back to the error, I took 1 thread from the slot next to it and threaded it through the empty slot. I re-attached the moved thread with a T-pin as if fixing a broken thread.
Sleying Before: 2-0-2-2
Sleying After: 2-1-1-2
It seems to have mostly "come out in the wash" after wet-finishing.
Now I can get on with weaving this coverlet for real!
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