A weaving float is not always viewed as something desirable. But that is usually when it’s unintended or unplanned. Floats can actually be utilised in many ways, particularly for texture and pattern weaving.
So, what is a float? Well, if you think about it, weaving is made up of floats. The plain weave structure or interlacement occurs when the threads go over/under/over/under each other. We wouldn’t generally think of this interlacement as being comprised of floats, but that’s what it is, just really short floats.
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A float can be described as any thread travelling over another. Most of the time when we refer to floats, we are talking about a thread travelling over more than one other, often a group.
A float can occur either horizontally or vertically. A horizontal float is known as a weft float. A vertical float is known as a warp floats. Today’s tutorial is specifically for warp floats.
In case you need a visual reference on the difference between a warp and a weft float, The Heart Scarf Project uses weft floats (note that the grey weft floats are horizontal).
Today’s tutorial is specifically for rigid heddle weavers.
What you will need:
- A rigid heddle loom (I used my Ashford 24″ rigid heddle loom. )
- A pick up stick that is wider than the width of your warp
- Yarn that is appropriate for the project you’re weaving and the heddle size you’re using. In this tutorial, I am playing around with a sampler and used a dk weight rainbow dyed cotton in the warp and a dk weight navy wool weft. My heddle size was 7.5dpi.
We begin by placing the heddle in the DOWN position so that all slot threads are raised. It is the slot threads that we want to pick up, not the hole threads. You can consider the hole threads as already picked up, by being held in the holes.
If you have not used a pick up stick before, don’t worry, they are very easy to get started with by following some very basic rules. If you want to gain some familiarity with how you might use a pick up stick, check out this video before going through the rest of the tutorial:
If you specifically would like to see what a 1/1 pick up looks like (which is what I use for this tutorial), I demonstrate it in this video at around the 10 minute mark š
Once your pick up stick is in place you are ready to start weaving the sequence. Your shuttle should be filled with your weft yarn. In my case, I’m using a solid, dark weft to contrast with the colourful warp.
Place the heddle in the DOWN position, throw your shuttle, then beat.
Change to the UP shed and slide your pick up stick forward to sit behind the heddle. There is no need to turn your pick up stick on edge, and in any case it would be very difficult to do so with the up shed being so firm. You can see the pick up stick right against the back of the heddle in the above picture.
Throw your shuttle and beat. Slide the pick up stick to the back of the loom.
Change to the DOWN shed. When you enter the shed with stick shuttle this time, you will need to manually go around the warp edge thread – it won’t catch on it’s own. This is really common when you move away from plain weave. If you need more information on the concept of manually going around the edges, I have a detailed article here.
Throw your shuttle and beat.
Change to the UP shed. Bring the pick up stick forward and lay it flat at the back of the heddle once more. Throw the shuttle and beat. Slide the pick up stick back.
Change to the DOWN shed. Again, you will need to catch the edge warp as you enter the shed. Throw shuttle and beat.
By now you will notice the vertical floats forming and getting longer. Really long floats are not practical, as they will catch on things, so it’s time to halt the float in it’s tracks with a tie down thread.
Change to the UP position. No pick up stick this time! Throw the shuttle and beat.
That is one complete weaving sequence. If you want to continue weaving the pattern, you go back to the beginning and work through the steps again.
If you would like the pick up and weaving sequence in a printable format, please click on the download button.
If you would like to see this tutorial in video format, I have you covered!
If you want to explore floats further, I have a lot resources to help (too many to list here!) that you can find here on my blog or Youtube channel.
I also want to recommend Jane Patrick’s The Weaver’s Idea Book. It has a HUGE section on weaving warp and weft floats that you will find very instructive and inspiring.
I hope this was helpful to you, be sure to leave any questions or comments down below!
Until next time…
Happy Weaving
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