Weaving Techniques || Creating Texture With Wool Roving

Last week in my post on how to have two different warp thread colors, I had woven with wool roving. I have previously talked about weaving wool roving, but I haven’t yet talked about adding texture to it when you weave.

The tricky part of weaving with wool roving is the fibers can be easily disturbed. This means you don’t want to pull it between warp threads and let fibers pull up. The best way to weave with wool roving is to pull up your warp threads and place the wool roving between them. A heddle, if you have one, would also work well for weaving wool roving.

Here are my steps for plain weaving wool roving. You can find pictures to go along with the instructions here.

Roving Plain Weave

step 1| I put some support rows in my weave before adding my roving. The support rows are important because roving is incredibly stretchy and has little structure of it’s own, so it will not stop your warp threads from spreading and trust me you don’t want your warp threads to spread after you take it off the loom.

step 2| Next I took the very edge of my roving and plain wove it between a few warp threads. This will be in the back of my weave and will secure my roving.

step 3| I then start weaving my roving just as I would a plain weave, however since it is so thick, I need to pick up the warps and bring the roving through with my fingers. As you can see in the picture, I’m weaving the roving at a diagonal so that I don’t pull it straight.

step 4| Once the roving is woven, I then use my fingers to slide it up the warps into place and also pinch it and pull a little to fluff it. At this point you can really play around with the roving to shape it how you want.

step 5| To finish the roving, take the roving end and weave it in some of the back warps to secure it.

Tips for Creating Texture with Wool Roving

• Follow the steps above for plain weaving.
• Using your fingers you can gently pull the roving up between the warp threads so it “bubbles” in some areas.
• In some areas I wove my roving under and over two warp threads and in other areas I wove my roving under and over single warp threads. This creates different bulk sizes of the roving and also shows or hides your warp threads more.
• To get a lot of bulk in the roving, twist the roving tightly by the warp threads, then weave it between the warps. The twisted roving will have more bulk and will create stronger “bubbles”.
• To get consistent “bubbles” of the roving, keep twisting it before you weave it between warp threads.
• I always make sure to have at least 2 plain woven rows with a spun thread before and after the roving to lock the warp threads in. If you want these rows hidden use a thread that is the same color and is thin.

I also have previously talked about how to soumak weave wool roving, which also looks really nice in weaves.

Have you tried weaving wool roving before? Did you have any issues with it or did you find it to be fairly easy once you got the hang of it? I think my biggest concern starting out, was not shredding the roving against my warp threads.

P.S.  If you’re wondering what stitch is on my loom before the roving, it’s the hem stitch.

Happy Weaving!

Kate

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