I tried a new class last week. I used overshot as a way to guide weavers through exciting discoveries of sampling treadling techniques, choosing colors, and changing yarn sizes.

Two weavers came on Thursday to warp their looms. On Friday they were joined by two more weavers and they all wove overshot samplers.

This is the Sample Wall with examples of the drafts and the variables they could try.

I didn’t hang the “orange peel” sample but had it available. This is a good example of the effect of sett on the appearance of a piece. These are woven on the same warp of 5/2 cotton. The one on the right is sett at 12 epi (ends per inch) and the one on the left is sett at 15 epi. With the warp threads that much closer together the orange peel pattern is elongated and the circle becomes an oval.

The next photos are some of the weavers’ work on the looms near the beginning of class.

Two weavers chose black warp as in the samples. One weaver used white warp. Those are all cotton but the bottom one is wool because I already had that on a loom. That is white wool warp with gray tabby weft. It is so interesting to see the differences.

This was the first time for this class so I over-estimated how much warp would be woven. Two people have come back to continue work. Here is the sampler one of the students finished the next day. I will wait to see what others finished at home.

I hope to offer this class again but its not scheduled right now. Look for Overshot Explorations.