Weaving Weft-Faced Circles

When weaving weft-faced circles I, like Claudia over at Mirrix Looms, always draw my circle right on the warp and follow it precisely. This means covering up the drawing completely.  I’m not super picky about my circles being exactly symmetrical so my stepping will not be the exact same on all sides, but I do want to point out a couple of things about stepping (decreasing/increasing) on a circle that might not seem obvious to a beginner tapestry weaver, as well as some other maybe not so obvious tips.

Another Sam's naptime worth of #weaving done mirrixlooms

A photo posted by Janna Maria Vallee (@jannamariavallee) on Sep 22, 2014 at 11:50am PDT

1) Unless you are making tiny circles you do not need to decrease until you run out of warp threads.  If you operate under this assumption you may end up with points.  This entirely depends on your ends-per-inch (epi) and the size of your circle, but if you’re weaving three-inch circles over 6 ends-per-inch the top and bottom of your circle might be something like eight ends each.

2) Similarly my circles above have sides which have no stepping at all – they go straight up for 11 wefts (or picks), mirroring the top and bottom.

3) For weft-faced weaving consistent beating and tension are key!  If you have even and tight tension you will be more successful at beating well and evenly and therefore your shapes will be keep their shape and stay proportional to each other.  If you're weave two circles with different beating habits they will not have the same amount of picks and therefore may change shape as the tapestry progresses and/or after it comes off the loom.  Remember that you should not be able to see your warp through the weft (This rule applies to every pick below the last one you wove; the last weft that was passed will sometimes show warp even though it has been beat hard enough.)  In general you want to make sure you are beating hard enough to cover your warp, and then be consistent.  But, you never want to be beating so hard that it becomes a workout.  If If you are not able to cover your warp easily it's likely that you are using weft that is too thick, or conversely have your EPI set too close together for the weft you are wanting to use.

4) If you're like me and you enjoy the kilim-esque look of stepping and slits you needn’t read on, but if you require a nicely rounded circle you could try outlining your circle using the sumac stitch.  I recently asked Kathe Todd Hooker (who writes these tapestry weaving books) and she put it like this 

“You can outline in sumac in the colour of the base or the colour of the circle as you go. Weave the circle and when you reach the top sumac in either the circle colour or the fill in colour around the circle. It’s done while you are weaving. Also pay attention to whether you are moving up on a hill or a valley thread. The trick is to remember if you go up on a valley thread the weft sinks and the turn is lower. If you rise on a hill thread the weft pass stays higher. So you can jump up and pull the corner off of a stairstep and hold it in place by weaving lower then the stairstep" Kathe Todd Hooker

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TIP:  When drawing on your warp use ONLY fabric markers or sharpies you have tested for wash-fastness. Test them by drawing on fabric and then washing it to see if it stays.  If the mark stays you are good to go.  You do not want to risk your marker seeping through your weft when you block it or on a humid day.

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Glossary:

Weft-Faced: a woven fabric where the warp remains completely covered by the weft.  Only the weft will be visible.

Warp: the yarn that dresses the loom, either running vertically up and down the loom structure or horizontally front to back on the loom structure depending on the loom used

Weft: the yarn that is passed through the shed of the warp on a loom creating woven fabric.

Shed:  The space between the warps that are raised and those that are not raised.  The shed changes from pick to pick using shedding devices or shafts depending on the loom used.


Pick: Each pass of the weft through the warp is called a pick

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Janna Maria Vallee
artist, textile junkie, instructor