I received a great question from a reader who is new to weaving. She had come across a really gorgeous weaving with lots of different ropes and some yarns in it too.
She asked about how to incorporate the bulky rope along with regular woven yarn and also how to change your weaving midstream and add separate stitches randomly, similar to the weave that inspired her.
I think these questions are really great, because even though I’ve covered this topic in parts, I haven’t directly addressed it. This post will be a really great way for those who are newer to weaving to learn how to weave in a more organic way and also weave with fibers of different weights and bulk.
The first part of the question is really straight forward. No matter the weight of the fiber your weaving with, you can use the same weaving techniques whether it is a really thin yarn or a really bulky rope. However, with that said you will need to account for some things. For example bulky yarns and rope will weave up much quicker, while thinner yarns and rope will take longer to weave. If you’re putting the two side by side, then my best suggestion is to just go for it. Don’t worry about the over/under of each row matching up, because it most likely won’t (this is true even for yarns of similar size).
A second thing to consider is bulky yarns take up more space and sometimes need more room to “breathe”. What I mean by this is bulky yarns can look really smashed if you try to weave them in every warp and it can drastically change the look of your pattern. To give my bulky yarn space, I’ll skip warp threads. So instead of weaving an over/under with a bulky thread, I might weave over 2/ under 1 or whatever I feel looks best with the bulky yarn.
The last consideration when weaving different fibers, is to pay attention to how fragile the thread is. When weaving something like roving who’s fiber is easy to disturb, you’ll definitely need to approach the weaving with a slower and more careful hand.
Other then these considerations, you can weave up different fibers in the same ways and weave them all alongside each other in whatever way you want.
For the second part of the question, how to change your weaving midstream and add separate stitches randomly, I highly recommend trying my organic doodle weave technique. This is a great practice for changing threads randomly and just bunching them together however you want. Try weaving like this for fun and without any pressure to make something specific, it can teach you a lot about weaving and how much flexibility you have!
For those that need more information, I also have a post on how to weave in new threads, which shows in pictures how I will add a new thread next to another thread in the middle of a weave. I also have a great post on all the ways to change threads in your weave. This post is really helpful for dealing with gaps that might be caused by putting two different threads next to each other.
And if you want even more help, I have super a detailed pattern for a weave that is easy for beginners and also free to those who join my newsletter.
This should help get those who are new to weaving started. And if you have more questions you can ask me in the comments below.
Happy Weaving!
Kate
For more fun, follow me here ->
