Can you weave plain weave on krokbragd threading?

My answer to this question is: “Yes… but are you sure you want to?”

There are times when you’re weaving krokbragd and you want to have a little area of just plain colour, whether it’s to break up a busy design or as a border section.

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My wallhanging piece pictured above has some larger bands of solid white at the top and the bottom to act as borders. The top section was also woven in order to fold over and form the sleeve for my quilt hanger.

You might naturally think that for weaving a solid band of colour, you would choose plain weave. If you have your rigid heddle loom set up with a single heddle, heddle rod and pick up stick, plain weave is easy.

All you have to do to achieve plain weave on this setup is:

1. Heddle up
2. Heddle down

However, plain weave is definitely not the best option (in my opinion) and I’m going to tell you why.

Plain weave is a balanced weave

By it’s very nature, the amount of warp showing compared to the amount of weft showing is equal, ie. balanced! Now, consider the very weft faced krokbragd you have been weaving all this time. The weft completely covers the warp so that all you see is the colours of the weft forming patterns. If you suddenly throw a band of plain weave in there, it’s not going to match up so well with the krokbragd.

Compare the band of green plain weave just woven with the rest of the krokbragd underneath. See the problem?

The warp is showing through, and considering we have spent the rest of the piece carefully beating down the weft to cover the warp, the plain weave now sticks out like a sore thumb! If the entire piece was plain weave, it would be desired that the warp is showing through at the same rate as the weft, but not for krokbragd.

Plain weave is a lighter weave structure

It’s not only the visual aspect of the plain weave that is different to the krokbragd either. Weft faced fabrics are generally quite stiff and dense. There is a great difference in texture between the two weave structures on this piece, with the plain weave section being thin and light.

Changing the weave structures changes your edges

This difference in weight of the woven piece affects the fabric in other ways too. Krokbragd has more draw in than plain weave, so suddenly my edges are no longer consistent and look slightly bulgy in the plain weave section.

So, how do we solve this problem?

Thankfully the answer is extremely simple. All you have to do is keep weaving krokbragd!

Just use the solid colour that you want for your band of colour and move through the 3 step krokbragd weaving sequence. Don’t change your colour until you have the desired amount of weaving.

You can now compare the two sections of weaving in green – the part where the warp is showing is the plain weave and the more uniform looking part on top is the krokbragd. Also, because the green krokbragd follows the previous weave structure, it looks much more uniform and “like it belongs” there.

If you want to learn more about weaving krokbragd on your rigid heddle loom, check out my Krokbragd 101 online course.

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I hope you enjoyed this article! Perhaps it gave you some new ideas for krokbragd design? Or perhaps it has inspired you to give krokbragd a try? Let me know in the comments section below!

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Until next time…

Happy Weaving!