I learn backwards. Sdrawkcab! I progress from hard to easy. I did it with spinning; I used a wheel first then downsized to a spindle and now I am doing it with weaving.
I wanted to try overshot, which is a simple but complex form of weaving. I have a book called “Learn to Weave” and it is covered in Chapter 15 (out of 16 chapters).
I have a wonderful book of patterns published in the 1940’s. As an aside, I learned from it why I love linen so much. The author states you can tell linen from cotton because linen gives up stains easily with mild soap and sun, cotton doesn’t and holds the stains. Something to do with the nature of the fiber. And here I thought I was a phenomenal laundress! At least it justifies my linen addiction.
Back to weaving. Instead of using a tried and true draft (pattern) I found one I liked on the Internet and imported it into my iPhone weaving app: iWeaveit.
Looked good, so off to the loom I went.
I warped the loom and eagerly began weaving and it looked terrible. I went back to the book and learned the pattern didn’t obey a rule of overshot and the software didn’t know any better. Whoever uploaded the pattern probably created it in theory without trying it out.
But through this fiasco, I learned big lessons and now understand overshot weaving more than if everything went by the “book”.
Island and North Country Life 