BEGINNER TUTORIAL TWO-WARP FLOAT PATTERNS-a proposal by Laverne Waddington

 

These warp float patterns are created on a base of horizontal bars. You should know how to prepare your warp to weave horizontal stripes in two colors before you attempt this tutorial. The instructions for weaving horizontal bars are on the first beginner tutorial page........www.weavolution.com/node/4610

Instructions will be given here for weaving a triangle. You will see that once you have mastered making a triangle and a simple diagonal, these can be combined in endless ways to form all kinds of simple and complex designs. Video instructions can also be accessed on my Flikr page..........

www.flickr.com/photos/39560980@N05/sets/72157622448219980/ 

                 

 

Comments

Thu, 10/15/2009 - 15:56

bolivian warmi

This is the chart for the triangle design..I recommend having 16 warps of each color in your pattern area and single color borders of perhaps 4 warp revolutions.

Weave several rows of two color horizontal bars to start.

I am working with back and white here. Finish with an all black row in order to be ready to start forming black floats.

    

You have just opened up the shed with all the black patterned warps and passed the weft.

Now you are ready to start picking the black warps for your pattern. You need to pick THREE PAIRS OF BLACK WARPS to form the base of your triangle. Counting from the RIGHT you need to keep the first, third and fifth pairs of black warps and drop all the other blacks.

I have separated the first pair of black warps from the second . The first pair is on my right middle finger. I am going to KEEP that pair and DROP the second pair that is on my left fingers.

I will continue...KEEPING the THIRD pair, DROPPING the fourth pair and KEEPING the FIFTH pair.

All the rest of the black pattern warps and the borders are then dropped.

Here are the three pairs (first, third and fifth). The sword is placed under these.

Now I am up to my next row of ALL WHITE pattern warps. What I need to do is ADD these three pairs of black warps to the whites.

CONTINUED BELOW...............................

Thu, 10/15/2009 - 14:15

bolivian warmi

WARP FLOAT PATTERNING INSTRUCTIONS PART TWO..............

We have just picked up the three pairs of black pattern warps and are now ready to add these to the whites.

Leaving the sword under the three black pairs, open the shed with all the whites

                                    

Place your index finger in this shed.                                      We now need to ADD the three black pairs to all the whites. To do

                                                                                                        this, tilt the sword whie leaving the index finger in the white shed.

                                                                                                        Slide the rest of the fingers of the left hand into the NEW shed

                                                                                                        below. Now you can remove the sword and place it into this

                                                                                                        NEW shed.

 CONTINUED BELOW................................

Thu, 03/04/2010 - 18:58

bolivian warmi

WARP FLOAT PATTERNING INSTRUCTIONS PART THREE..........

Now you can pass your weft through this NEW shed comprising all the whites and the three pairs of black pattern warps.

                                                         

Passing the weft .                                                                         Now you can open the shed with all the black warps and

                                                                                                         pass your weft.

This chart shows what we have just done. We have just completed row 3.

Now you will pick the black pattern pairs for the second part of the triangle. These two black pairs are located BETWEEN the three pairs that were picked for the triangle base. Add to them all the white warps and pass the weft.

Open the black warp shed and pass the weft.

Pick the black pair that is BETWEEN the two that you picked in the last pick up row. This forms the top point of the triangle. Add this pair to all the white warps and pass the weft. Open the shed with all the black warps and pass the weft. The triangle is now finished.

 

Here are some additional pattern charts.........having an odd numbered amount of pairs will allow you to have designs centered on the warp. Note that I have not filled in all the horizontal bars on the charts-just the floating warps.

You can see video for this technique on my Flikr page here................

www.flickr.com/photos/39560980@N05/sets/72157622448219980/.

 

 

Thu, 10/15/2009 - 15:57

Anne Crowley (not verified)

I am going to try these, they look interesting.

Below are views of a project that I just cut off the loom late last night.  I haven't cleaned up or finished these yet.  They are to be belt favors for our local SCA coronation.  I set up the warp with knitting yarn and used small crochet thread to weave with.  Each favor is woven and then separated from the next by about 6 inches of open space for fringe.  The bottom one is what I see as I weave (I drop rather than pick up my pattern). The middle is the 'right' side where the pattern shows up in relief.  The top one is my trying out insetting a 'jewel' in the middle of the diamond for bling (after all, it IS a Royal gift :)).

I do a lot of this diamond pattern, it is easy to keep track of with disruptions and I just treat it like a graph doodle.  Laverne, you are teasing me with these patterns.  The Inkle loom is great for narrow (up to 2 1/2 inches) but I want to get that backstrap running!  Thanks!

Thu, 10/15/2009 - 16:33

bolivian warmi

Thank you for adding these to our pattern inventory Anne!

Aunt Janet has asked me about the back side of the weaving and I responded to her by PM but I think it is worth posting something about ths here for all to see.

The wefts are exposed on the backside so the reverse is not an exact reflection of the front. You can get different effects depending on what weft color you choose.

                                         

Here I am making white floats on a blue                                    This is the reverse-it looks like the opposite of the front but

and white striped background and using                                    a lot of the blue you see is actually exposed blue weft.

blue weft.

                                         

In this sample, white floats on a black and                               The reverse shows the exposed red weft.

white striped background and I am using

red weft.

Fri, 10/23/2009 - 02:33

Aunt Janet (not verified)

OK here goes nothing.  i'll try to load some photos

Fri, 10/23/2009 - 02:36

Aunt Janet (not verified)

Well, it is bigger than I meant to have it, but here is the smallest photo I could get.  The above are inkle woven.  i'll try to upload one of my backstrap bands now.

Fri, 10/23/2009 - 02:38

Aunt Janet (not verified)

You can see that I had some interesting probems on the lower band.  I think there was a mistake in the warp right down the middle where there runs a dark line.  then there was a couple of threades that kept crossing.  Otherwise, I like the warp float patterning, and will try some more.

Aunt Janet

Fri, 10/23/2009 - 03:06

bolivian warmi

Super! You have done so so well!! Those are terrific bands-you have gotten the hang of it really quickly-nice straight edges and the warp floats have come out beautifully. Congratulations!

Laverne

Mon, 11/02/2009 - 23:03

francorios (not verified)

I think they look good.

Very nice edges!

Have a good day!

Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:08

jeannine (not verified)

hi  laverne, had a question about the backside but found the answer right here.which leads to another one already: if I want the weaving to be reversible then I had to really pickup the black and drop the white instead of taking them together with the white (black floats on black and white stripes)and then you would not see the weft but it takes perhaps more time to weave?

Tue, 11/03/2009 - 12:04

bolivian warmi

Yes, Jeannine. The complementary warp weaves work that way. Each black warp has a white partner. You pick the black and drop its white partner. The black forms the pattern on the front and the white drops to form the same pattern on the back. You have to have a system to ''tie down'' the floats between pick up rows. Pebble weave is an example of one of these complementary warp weaves. Here is an example of the front and back of a design.

                                

Laverne

Mon, 11/09/2009 - 21:02

bolivian warmi

I am posting on behalf of our new member in France, bibi who has been working on the warp float project but who is having some internet issues. Here is her first band. Striking colours and beautifully done!

Mon, 11/09/2009 - 21:46

francorios (not verified)

Well done bibi!

Very nice.

Have a good day!

Mon, 11/09/2009 - 22:03

Caroline (not verified)

Very nice Bibi! Well done!

Tue, 11/10/2009 - 23:51

bolivian warmi

Another nice band from bibi!

Wed, 11/11/2009 - 18:38

bibi (not verified)

thanks everybody for encouragements, your works are all great too !

Michelle

Fri, 11/13/2009 - 14:22

Aunt Janet (not verified)

Michelle,

Good work!  Hope you are having as much fun as I am.  I love the international study group we have going on here. 

Fri, 11/13/2009 - 15:14

bolivian warmi

I wrote that Michelle is in France but actually she is in Sao Tome! but going back to France in 2 months. I had to google Sao Tome to find out where it was.

Fri, 11/27/2009 - 09:50

jeannine (not verified)

 hi backstrapweavers here are the results of my simple stripes that turned in to a warpfloat project.It took a lot of time to finish because i wanted four selvedges.i had some troubles with the fluf(?)building up in the heddles but could end the project as i wanted.you can see how i made the pattern here:

jskunstweven.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!9F13A829247F7571!182.entry

kind regards,jeannine

Fri, 11/27/2009 - 10:53

Caroline (not verified)

Thats great, Jeannine!  impressive! Were you able to do some of it without the pattern? How hard was it to make the 4 selvedges?

Fri, 11/27/2009 - 12:08

jeannine (not verified)

no i coulndn't weave without the pattern next to me but after a while i could see if i did something wrong or not. the simple cross was without a pattern  ;weaving 4 selvedges was not easy ;first i replaced the shedstick by a thick knittingneedle ,then  a thinner needle ;when it became impossibel to open the shed I removed the stringheddles end wove the remaining part with a weaving needle.

Fri, 11/27/2009 - 19:19

francorios (not verified)

Great job Jeannine,

Very good looking pattern.

That last part with the needle is exactly what needs to be done to finish. It's tedious, but then you have a finished edge without fringe or ends that need to be woven back in.

I found that crossstitch needles are good for finishing. They have a rounded point that doesn't rip/split the thread as much as a pointy end as you weave.   Rounded point is easier to work than a sharp point. They also have a large eye for threading yarn through it.

Also "packing" needles that have a curve near the end are good. You can use sandpaper to smooth off the needle point so it doesn't rip/split the thread as you weave.

Have a good day!

Fri, 11/27/2009 - 20:17

jeannine (not verified)

thank you,Franco ;that is just right what you are saying .the very last part i did with a blunt embroidery needle because the thread had indeed a tendecy to split. I made sure to end in the stripes part that was easier to finish.

Thu, 12/10/2009 - 10:48

Aunt Janet (not verified)

Here is my black and red band with pick-up work.

Thu, 12/10/2009 - 10:49

Aunt Janet (not verified)

and a bag I made with two bands.

Thu, 12/10/2009 - 14:24

bolivian warmi

Great bands Aunt Janet. The little bag looks an ideal size for a cell phone.

Laverne

Thu, 12/10/2009 - 15:09

jeannine (not verified)

beautiful band and pickup pattern; black and red work well together.

jeannine

Thu, 12/10/2009 - 16:06

bibi (not verified)

superbe ! you did work a lot !!! what are you going to put in ?

Michelle

Tue, 12/29/2009 - 01:09

bolivian warmi

Here is a matching placemat and mug rug set that I took off the loom this morning.

The pattern is done with the warp float technique from this tutorial and I hope it will inspire you all to get adventurous and try some wider pieces on your looms.

Here you can see the mug rug design which I made in double weave to match the ''knot'' design on the placemat.

You can read more about weaving wide things on the backstrap loom and see another placemat and mug rug set I made on my blog.....

backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/

I hope you will visit and check it out.:-)

Laverne

 

 

Tue, 12/29/2009 - 01:29

Caroline (not verified)

Thats great! Looks really good!

Have you thought about the next WAL yet? hehe! Once we have got over New Year?

Tue, 12/29/2009 - 02:48

bolivian warmi

Yes I have! He he! keeping you in suspense....

Tue, 12/29/2009 - 15:20

Aunt Janet (not verified)

 Squeals of delight! we are going to have some back stapping fun in '10!  Love the wide work, Laverne!  Thank you.

Aunt Janet

Tue, 12/29/2009 - 15:45

bolivian warmi

Hey, you are welcome! here are few things brewing up! Stay tuned.................. :-)

Laverne

 

 

Fri, 01/01/2010 - 22:44

bolivian warmi

I have finished putting the pattern charts for the ''knot'' design on my blue placemat above as well as the design for the bookmark that I featured in my blog post on a new blog page today.

I hope you will use the designs in a project or that they will inspre you to weave wide and create something of your own.

backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/

Laverne

Mon, 02/15/2010 - 14:59

siseltikva (not verified)

I have been warping for a warp float project, and I was just wondering... can I put my loom bar in my new shed, the one I created when I rearranged the warps? Just wondering if that would mess everything up or if it would be okay. Or maybe I'm supposed to do that. lol. Don't know :) 

Mon, 02/15/2010 - 18:20

bolivian warmi

I have never done that and am trying hard to visualise it. I don't think you can as the colors that are in the shed nearest to you won't be going around the loom bar-only the ones in the new shed will.

You will have like an extra cross in the warp-just ignore that. It will be in the fringe at the start or even if you are using a needle to start on, just rearrange the warps as best you can on the needle. There will be a few bumps where the warps cross each other but nothing serious.

Tue, 02/16/2010 - 16:54

siseltikva (not verified)

I'm so bummed, I started weaving on the warp I started to do the warp float project, and I am literally unable to pull up the shed stick (the one that's not the string heddles). I'm using the same yarn for my string heddles as my warp string (mercerized perle cotton #3). I do have some 5/2 perle cotton on the warp, but I didn't think that would cause that much of a problem. I know there are some loose warps, too, but I've taken most of that up with dowels.  

Is this the "sticky warps" problem I've heard you talk about? Maybe I just forgot how of weave. This is also wider than a lot of what I've done, but surely its not just that. Do you think its my string heddles? I have some nylon string that I could use, if I could reestablish the two sheds, but its a bit thicker than even the 5/2 cotton. Will that be a problem?

Thanks for your help, as always! 

Tara

Tue, 02/16/2010 - 18:38

bolivian warmi

Definitely not a sticky warp problem if you are using mercerized perle cotton. A wider warp with finer yarns does make opening the sheds more work but not impossible. Try just getting your hand in under the warps that need to be raised and lifting them up through the heddles section by section. If you still can't clear the shed, then I would say that you have some warps crossed.

If you are able to watch the  videos on my latest blog post you will see how much work goes into opening the sheds. The sheds I have there are particularly hard because it is double weave and there are twice as many warps in a small space.

Watch me opening the shed stick shed and see how I lift  the warps in sections across the width of the warp.

http://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/

Hope this helps :-)

Laverne

 

 

 

Wed, 02/17/2010 - 04:56

siseltikva (not verified)

Oooh I didn't want you to say "crossed warps." :( 

I tried your tactic of raising the warps section by section, and they seemed to slip past a bit more, but they still weren't very open on the nearer side of the loom bar. (Like, the cross barely made it past the heddle strings) So, I started looking carefully at my warps, and they are crossed, and loose. I thought I was so careful when I was warping, but whole sections (when I switched colors) are looser than the others. :( And because I had to rearrange them, with them not being tight they want to go back to their old arrangement.

I tried straightening them out and weaving again, and it is just too hard to get them to work as they are right now. I have wove maybe 6 rows all together, and that spent all my strength and patience. I might try to tension the loom (like between two chairs or something) and try to figure out where the loosest warps are and try to retie them. They are so loose, they are past being helped by a dowel.

The video did help, though :) Thank you! It is good to see someone else working with their loom, definitely, and seeing the work that goes into raising those sheds.

I'm fighting the desire to give up on this warp! I think it would be lovely if it worked and I would hate to not use all that yarn.

Thanks for the help! 
Tara

 

Wed, 02/17/2010 - 13:31

bolivian warmi

Well, if it is beyond help, it doesn't mean that the yarn has to be wasted. Just remove the string heddles, lay the warp on the floor and very slowly start winding the yarn back into balls. There will be a few tangles but as long as you go slowly,the tangles won't get into knots.

I wonder why those warps are getting so loose.

 

 

 

Mon, 03/01/2010 - 07:32

siseltikva (not verified)

Thanks again for your help! Since then, I've taken the wonky warp off my loom and started again. I was VERY careful when I was changing colors to keep the tension the same this time, but soon realized that my warping "pegs" are leaning in on my bookcase! That would have been a big contribution to the last wonky warp. I guess I hadn't had a problem with it before, because when I'm not weaving a wider band (this one's around 2.5 inches wide) I can stick them farther in my books where they are less likely to move. I also think I was putting more tension when I was warping, in an effort to keep tension the same, so that probably made them lean more. So, I'll have to find another place to warp than my trusty bookcase for wider things, but that's okay. I'll figure something out.

I also wanted to be really careful about crossed warps this time, and so far so good! I pulled on the yarns one by one when I was creating the new crosses, to make sure I was getting the right one. And I tried to be really careful when I was making my string heddles too. Which are never even, by the way :) Maybe in time.

All that to say, I let my loombar take up the lopsided tension, and I have successfully woven the foundation rows for my warp float pattern! :) With no silly crazy loose warps or crossed warps :) I can't wait to get to the patterning part, hopefully tomorrow.

Thanks for your encouragement and help! I'm very encouraged to be happy (and not frustrated) while weaving again.

Mon, 03/01/2010 - 12:56

bolivian warmi

Yay! You can set up your far loom bar lopsided to compensate for the lopsided warp as you have done. Sounds good-you are being very careful with all the steps having learned lots of lessons from your previous experiences-great :-)

Maybe you should start thinking about buying some dowel and a length of wood to make a warping board. Sounds like you will be weaving many more projects and it will be worth it.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Laverne

Mon, 03/01/2010 - 13:29

rose Goldielocks (not verified)

If you don't have dowels available for a warping board, or don't have access to a power drill, you can use "L" brackets or braces to do the same thing and just screw them to a flat board. (now the posts are straight and perpendicular!) My biggest problem when making warping boards and stuff, was that I could not drill a hole 90 degrees perpendicular to a board with a hand-held drill. It always, no matter how hard I tried, ended up wonky and crooked!  Buy some sandpaper, or use an Emory board to smooth the edges of the metal braces to make sure that there are no rough edges.  The red dots on my sketch are the holes where screws go into. If you set the braces a little bit  in from the edge, and use a bookshelf board, the warping board can live in your bookshelf when you aren't using it!

As Laverne has shown ; a well wound, good warp is the start to a successful project.

Mon, 03/01/2010 - 15:15

bolivian warmi

Ooh...I LIKE it! I think even I, the power tool challenged , could make that. Then you don't have to worry about getting the dowels firmly wedged into the holes.

Mon, 03/01/2010 - 15:46

Bonnie Datta (not verified)

Another possibility is an arrangement used a lot by tablet weavers.  C clamps are put upside down on  bench, table, counter top (whatever).  The shaft of the clamp works as a post, and with just 2 of them you can still make a cross.  You have to tighten them hard so be aware that they might leave marks unless you put something between to protect your surface.

Bonnie.

 

Mon, 03/01/2010 - 16:55

rose Goldielocks (not verified)

I have used that often.. but...

1) be sure to put a folded paper towel on BOTH top and bottom of where you are going to clamp; because unless you tighten the C-clamps to the point they leave marks, they will lean in to each other, especially if you set them more than an arm's lenght apart.     I have yet to wind a cardweaving warp where the left side is not a different length from the right side. Because I normally mount the cards in a table loom setup and tye off the ends in a conventional weavers knots and use header sticks, it doesn't matter to me if its uneven, but it would make any backstrap warp un-manageable.

2) any thread smaller than 'yarn'.. ie. that is 12 tpi or so... has a tendancy to get caught in the 'screw' part of the clamp.

If you are going to buy  brand new "C"  clamps... be sure to get at least the 4" clamps,  because the most common arangement you find is a 2x4 forming a ledge for a table (like a picknick table). a 2x4 is 1 1/2" on the supposedly 2" edge, and then you have a countertop (another 1/2" normally) on top of that.  (says the person who's clamps did not open wide enough for a demo, and had to find anther solution.)

If you keep your "C" clamps with your loom, you have an instant place to 'tie off' your loom in most city parks that are all grassy without any good trees. A 'normal' picknick table made out of metal or wood is generally heavy enough to anchor a loom to.

 

Wed, 03/03/2010 - 20:10

siseltikva (not verified)

Thanks for those ideas about creating warping boards. The L-brackets seem like a great idea. You don't have to work to get those perpendicular :) 

I thought I'd show you some pictures of my warp float practice which I just took off my loom. It um... well it doesn't quite look like it should. To be honest, I even have a hard time seeing the pattern and I'm the one that put it in there. I think its a combination of things, like the warp that's floating is bigger than the background warp. And that section of yarn is just looser than the other two sections, so it really floats away from the background. And my rows are too "tall" - I mean I should have decreased tension and beat harder. But. It's done. And I'm happy-ish with it, even though it not quite right.

  

Ps. The pattern is supposed to be the last on on the right here:

Wed, 03/03/2010 - 21:18

bolivian warmi

Hi Tara,

Your floats are super long and that's why the whole thing is so three dimensional and "floating  away" as you say.

    

Looking at my example on the right ,you see that a pair of red warps simply floats from one red horizontal stripe over the white stripe to the next red stripe and there it stops. Your pink floats look ike they are floating over two or three teal stripes before stopping. The next shot might show it more clearly.

Pssst...I know you are trying not to think about this anymore but your edges are looking really good!

Laverne