February is the dreariest month, yes? Even the Valentine’s holiday seems to have no effect on one’s mood during this gloomy time of year. A lover of neutrals, I also have a large soft spot in my heart for bright pink, as it provides the perfect boost of color when needed most. 

After weaving my Neige Scarf, I had some leftover warp on the loom, and knew I wanted to change gears a little bit and go bold with both pattern and color. This overshot pattern, technically an elaborate point twill, reminds me of one of my favorite needlepoint techniques, Bargello. 

The draft comes from one of my most favorite weaving resources, one I believe is a must on any weaver’s bookshelf, A Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns edited by Carol Strickler. As with the Neige Scarf, the structure of the Voltaic Scarf looks complicated, but the effort is in the threading. Unlike a straight draw, where the ends of a warp are threaded 1-2-3-4, etc, an overshot threading is unique to the pattern and directly related to the treadling of the warp ends. The large blocks of color created by floats of the patterning weft are stabilized by a tabby weft, a much thinner warp end that is woven in a plain weave after every patterning weft pick. To throw in a knitting analogy, while applied differently, the tabby weft can be thought of similarly as tacking long floats in colorwork.

VOLTAIC SCARF

STRUCTURE: 
“An Elaborate Point Twill” by Sue Beevers, as published in A Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns edited by Carol Strickler. 

EQUIPMENT:
• 8-shaft loom, at least 24” weaving width
• 12 dent reed
• 2 shuttles

YARNS: 
WARP: The Fibre Co. Meadow (40% merino wool, 25% baby llama, 20% silk, 15% linen; 545 yds/100 gm skein): queen anne’s lace, 2 skeins.
PATTERNING WEFT: The Fibre Co. Road to China Lace (65% baby alpaca, 15% silk, 10% camel, 10% cashmere; 656 yds/100 gram skein): rhodolite, 1 skein.
TABBY WEFT: Jaggerspun Zephyr (50% merino wool, 50% silk; 1120yds/100 gm skein): vanilla, 1 skein.

WARP LENGTH: 
214 warp ends, 3 yds long. (allows for 6” take-up, 28” loom waste, 10” swatching/sampling).

SETTS: 
WARP: 16 epi (1 – 1 – 2 / dent in a 12-dent reed)
WEFT: 18 ppi patterning, 18 ppi tabby

DIMENSIONS:
WIDTH IN REED: 13.25” (33.75 cm)
AFTER FINISHING: 12.75” (32.5 cm) width, ” length, not including fringe.

For the weave draft and weaving instructions, download the free .PDF here. 

If you are new(er) to weaving and are looking to expand your knowledge of overshot, along with the Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, I cannot recommend the following book enough: Weaving Designs by Bertha Gray Hayes: Miniature Overshot Patterns, by Norma Smayda , Gretchen White, Jody Brown, & Katharine Schelleng.