A Bit about Boundweave

A weaver on Facebook asked me about Boundweave because we were both in Tom Knisely's class last March at the Jefferson City Fiber Retreat, so I thought I'd add some information here about Boundweave.  This way I'll have my notes here, too.

Boundweave is a weft-faced weaving technique where the warp threads are covered completely by the weft.  So, the colors that you throw when weaving completely cover the warp that was on the loom.  So, the warp must be threaded more loosely to allow the weft threads to cover it.  This produces a really nice thick fabric suitable for rugs, heavy tote bags, horse blankets, or table runners.

It is a slow technique because 2 or more throws are needed for each row of weaving.  We used long stick shuttles, which is also slower than using a regular boat shuttle.

We used a 12 dent reed and sleyed 2 ends of 8/4 carpet warp (natural color) in a dent and heddle, then skipped a dent, and repeat.  So, the 2 threads were threaded as one in both reed and heddle.  We added floating selvedges weighted separately using 3 ends of warp to each selvage on each side in a separate dent next to the last one.  This worked out to a sett of 6 ends per inch.  We used 162 ends for a width in reed of 13.5"

For weft, I used Paton's worsted weight wool, which filled in very nicely.  I used my Structo table loom, and it did surprisingly well with beating the weft in.  Usually you need a very heavy loom for techniques like this, but the loose sett helped also.

For the class, we worked a few inches in several different exercises.  Each exercise used "blocks", which are the shafts that are risen for that block.  For example, Block A may be shafts 3-4 using color A, then shafts 1-2 using color B.  Each block is repeated 4 times in some exercises.

Here's my example of the different exercises we did in class.  I used these colors: Red, Color A: Dark Gray, Color B; Yellow, Color C, and Blue, color D.

To beat in the weft threads well, push down the shaft, throw the weft, beat, push down the next shafts, beat again, and then throw the next color.  Repeat. This will help get the threads pushed down enough so they cover the warp well.

For my project at home after class, I did Boundweave on Opposites and I used 2 colors: red and gray.  This means that if you raise 2 shafts for the first throw of weft, you raise the other 2 shafts for the next throw of weft.  This will fill in one row with 2 colors of weft, which makes a design.

I used a Rosepath pattern for weaving:  Blocks A, B, C, D, A, D, C, B, A.  This makes a diamond pattern.  The blue at the beginning is waste yarn that will be taken out later. 

Here's the finished project.  I twined the fringe, which worked out well, too.

My notes:
Block A: 3-4 Color A, 1-2 Color B > 4 times
Block B: 4-1 Color A, 2-3 Color B> 4 times
Block C: 1-2 Color A, 3-4 color B> 4 times
Block D: 2-3 color A, 4-1 Color B> 4 times
Rosepath: A, B, C, D, A, D, C, B repeat. End with A,B,C,D,A,D,C,B,A
Color A is Red.  Color B is Dark Gray. Patons Wool worsted weight.

Rosepath threading: (1,2,3,4,1,4,3,2) repeat across.  Last repeat: (1,2,3,4,1,4,3,2,1)  Floating selvages on ends before and after threading.