I contracted the weaving bug when I first started looking at overshot. There is something about the idea of making circles and curves in a format of 90 degree angles that has always been intriguing to me.

So, now that you are weaving overshot on your loom- what exactly is overshot? Where did it come from? What makes it so cool? The origin of the technique itself may have started in Persia and spread to other parts of the world, according to the author, Hans E. Wulff, of The Traditional Crafts of Persia. However, it is all relatively obscured by history. In The Key to Weaving by Mary E. Black, she mentioned that one weaver, who was unable to find a legitimate definition of the technique thought that the name “overshot” was a derivative of the idea that “the last thread of one pattern block overshoots the first thread of the next pattern block.” I personally think it is because the pattern weft overshoots the ground warp and weft webbing.

Overshot is like a Pandora’s Box. You just open it up, just a little bit to try to get the basic understanding and all of a sudden you are waist deep in antique patterns, new vocabulary words and the desire to know EVERYTHING. We are going to break down the wide world of overshot into smaller bite sized knowledge nuggets. This is so you can build your knowledge of this amazingly in depth and diverse structure and be successful in creating and weaving your own.

A historical investigation into a pink overshot coverlet that was discovered at an antique fair. I explore the structure and the roots of it's unique color.

Research and discussion in regards to a miniature coverlet. Get a closer look at the overshot structure and a summary of miniature overshot techniques.