I just finished an overshot runner. The person that ordered it loved it so much that she ordered another one, same pattern, same color, only just a little longer because she wants to give it to her daughter. Two shuttles ... I like them but not on my 15" because there isn't as much room to throw the shuttles.

A good way to ease into overshot weaving is to dress the loom with a solid color yarn and use a simple threading like a straight twill. Load one shuttle with the warp yarn (tabby or background) and another shuttle with the same warp yarn but doubled and in a contrasting color (pattern). I like to tie up the treadles so that the leftmost treadle lifts one tabby shed and the rightmost treadle lifts the other tabby shed. The 4 inner treadles control pattern sheds. When the tabby shuttle is on the left, I use the leftmost treadle. When it's on the right, i use the rightmost treadle. This way it is easy to remember how to make the background. Then it's just a matter of experimenting with treadling the pattern. The joy of overshot is that you can create many pattern variations with simple threadings just by activating the pattern sheds in different combinations. Another option to get used to manipulating two shuttles is to try a simple Gerstenkorn (aka barleycorn) pattern. The cool thing about Gerstenkorn is that you only need one tabby shed. Because of the manner it's threaded, there are only three pattern sheds. Marguerite Porter Davison has an entire chapter on these weaves in A Handweaver's Pattern Book.

Pinwheel was my first two-shuttle pattern! It's so lovely, I hung up my test sample to decorate my weaving space. I'm threading a shadow weave pattern right now -- I'm nervous but excited! Putting it together really stretched my brain, but I figure even if it doesn't come out as intended, *something* interesting will happen. Thanks for this little overview, it's cool to see the different patterns laid out together like this.