Sunday before last the third and final Intermediate Weaving Sessions was run at the Guild. I’d woven my overshot project until I ran run out of the orange yarn, played a bit with substituted yarns, decided I preferred the orange, dyed more and wove to what seemed like closer to the end of the warp.

I wasn’t sure I should finish it for the class or not, since that could leave me with five hours of nothing to do. I asked Ilka, and she suggested I start another project. I decided to leave myself an hour or so of weaving to do in the class.

After we all went around the room to see how everyone’s projects were turning out, I had lunch then started weaving. It didn’t last as long as I’d hoped, as I ran out of orange yarn again. Here it is after I dyed yet more yarn and finished weaving:

I was surprised and pleased to find the two lengths of orange pattern were exactly the same length. I must have been beating consistently this time!

With no weaving to continue with in the class, I helped a few fellow weavers, and when I got to chat to the teacher it turned out the project I had in mind wasn’t likely to work. So I switched to my back-up project. Since I’d bought the Katie because it’s an 8 shaft loom, I want to do a project that utilised all shafts. I’ve also wanted to try using doubleweave to make a cloth with solid coloured squares inside squares.

Ilka ran through a method of working out the draft using blocks, which I only just comprehended – and felt like my brain was being stretched into a new shape.

I took this home, thought about it for a day, then the next night used it to map out a draft on graph paper. A few days later I recreated the draft in Illustrator.

Like with overshot, it’s like doing two things at the same time. Unlike overshot, which is something very simple (tabby) alternating with something more complex (the overshot pattern), it’s a complicated interaction of two moderately simple tabby patterns.

It is, however, perversely enjoyable. I’m keen to get a warp wound and onto the loom.