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Don't get tripped up on this weft-faced structure—use these resources and tips to help you explore and expand your skills.
Handwoven Editors4 min read
Boundweave is a simple four-shaft structure that produces richly patterned weft-faced cloth. You’ll often find it—and its three-shaft close cousin, krokbragd—in weaving drafts for sturdy rugs of both the floor and the mug variety.
Since these warps have a low sett, getting a project on the loom goes very quickly. The weaving proceeds at a more leisurely pace, because the weft colors pack down and require multiple picks.
The challenges of boundweave include choosing an effective group of colors, figuring out the right sett for your project, and weaving neat selvedges. To help you along, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite articles, technical tips, and videos, along with some projects to weave or to inspire.
Whether you’re exploring boundweave for the first time or looking to refine your technique, we hope these resources offer inspiration and practical guidance along the way. —Handwoven editors
If you’re brand new to boundweave, you’ll want to start off by watching this video course! Tom Knisely shows you how to weave these mesmerizing weft-faced designs for rugs, placemats, mug rugs, and more using your favorite 4-shaft twills.
"Very well presented with every aspect of boundweave explained in a comfortable easy to understand way. Loved this course and can't wait to get started with my own project!" - Sandra L.
View the video course at The Beauty of Boundweave with Tom Knisely.
Photo from Long Thread Media video
Lynn Schuster explores color, balance, and inspiration:
Boundweave can be woven on different types of threading. I use rosepath for my rugs, so I can weave flame and diamond motifs—but the weft colors must have some contrast in order for those motifs to show. When I’m choosing colors for a project, I twist together single strands of all the shades I’m considering....
Read the rest at How to Use Color in Boundweave Design.
Krokbragd is a three-shaft version of boundweave. Wynne Matilla wove this krokbragd rug for the comfort of Arrow, her old golden retriever, using contemporary colors. You can find the project in the January/February 1997 issue. Photo by Joe Coca
Madelyn van der Hoogt considers how boundweave works—and what that means for how to sett it:
Boundweave is the name we give weft-faced weaving usually done on a point-twill or rosepath-twill threading. If one shaft is down for a pick, the weft color shows over the threads on that shaft. When all shafts but one are raised for each pick in sequence and the weft color changed for each pick, the several wefts compress to look like a single weft, but in several different colors...
Read the rest at Ask Madelyn: Determining Warp Sett for Boundweave.
Getting tidy selvedges when weaving boundweave can be tricky. Tom Knisely shares his techniques for keeping them clean.
Whenever I teach a class on boundweave or krokbragd (a Scandinavian boundweave pattern), there are a few students who struggle with the technique—not because it’s difficult to understand or to weave but because these weft-faced weaves tend to produce an untidy-looking selvedge. Weavers who pride themselves on perfect selvedges will start to crumble at the way these edges look...
Read the rest at Notes from the Fell: Savvy Selvedges for Boundweave.
Tom Knisely believes that part of the pleasure of weaving boundweave is the joyful time at the loom as you watch the patterns develop. His Boundweave Rug design, shown here, is included in the eBook link at the bottom. Photo by Joe Coca
Susan E. Horton discusses how using a temple when weaving boundweave can keep your edges straight and help with the overall tension of a project.
I don’t always use a temple, but I often use one even for simple items such as kitchen towels. I find a temple not only keeps my edges straight, but it also helps with the overall tension of a project. There are some types of weaving that are easier to weave well if you use a temple. One of them is boundweave...
Read the rest at Using a Temple for Weft-Faced Weaving.
And watch the video tip here:
Photo by Joe Coca
Inspired by an earlier Handwoven article about Scandinavian rugs,
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