If you loved my first blog post on soumak stitch variations, you’ll love this one too. (Did you miss my first soumak stitch blog post? Check out Soumak Stitch 3 Ways here).
Weavers love soumak stitch for a reason! It’s beautiful and versatile. Here are 3 more ways you can use soumak stitch to add texture to your woven wall hangings.
One direction
When completing a row of soumak, instead of weaving the second row with loops in the opposite direction to make a braid, try keeping all your loops going in the same direction.
You can see that the pink yarn in the photo is woven in the same direction repeatedly. This creates stacked rows of one-direction soumak. (Sadly Harry Style and the boys won’t appear no matter how much “one direction” soumak you weave. Bad joke I know😉)
Offset loops
When making a stand soumak braid you wrap the yarn around the same warp threads whether you’re weaving to the right or the left.
To create offset loops when weaving your second row of soumak, do not wrap the second row of yarn around the original warp threads. Wrap it around a different warp thread to create an offset braid effect.
Freeform
Freeform soumak is way easier than it looks. Just weave soumak stitches of different lengths in different directions at random to build up a woven freeform braided section. That’s seriously all there is to it, try it and see how much you love it.