Continuous weave?

I read an article in Yarn Maker recently about something called Continuous Weave. This is a type of weaving where the warp and the weft are made from the same strand of yarn at the same time. There’s a pretty good website here about it. , as well as this one about making a tube with a circular (or square) bottom.

Well, I was inspired, and as it said that I could do this with any symmetrical shape I decided to give it a go with a rectangle. It seems, though, that by any they didn’t really mean any in the literal sense of the word – or perhaps it’s symmetrical I should be defining better here.

As far as I can tell, it can be done on: triangles, squares, circles, hexagons (with sides of equal length) should work too. Rectangles? Not so much. You see, I believe that you need the same number of warp “pegs” and weft “pegs” to make the weave work. On a rectangle this isn’t the case.

By the time I realised this, however, I already had a lovely rectangular frame (made by my husband) and as he put a lot of work into it, I decided to have a go at weaving in a slightly more conventional manner (well, sort of).

I “warped” the frame by wrapping the yarn on the diagonal across the whole frame, and then using the principle of weaving a “loop” of yarn that is used in continuous weave, I began weaving on the frame.



What I ended up with is actually quite pretty, I think. This is noro sock yarn held double. It’s possible to “cast off” the edges to keep the fabric from unravelling once you’re finished too.
I’m pleased with the edges as shown in this pic, but I did a crochet chain along one edge which I’m less pleased with. I might have to pull that back and re-do it properly.



Then all I need to do is fold it over and make it into a bag. When it was on the frame I thought I might need to line it, but it’s spring together quite nicely as a fabric now. I might still decide to line it though, I think it will feel more finished if I do.



This was a practice run, and I’ve learnt a lot in doing it. I’m going to have a go at a square and do it properly. I think I’ll use some thick card to do that, save poor hubby’s woodworking skills for when I need them!