Weaving
I own an Ashford rigid heddle loom in the 24inch/60cm size, and a DIY backstrap loom that I made from some rolling pins, a ruler and some cable ties.
Techniques
- Clasped Weft Weaving
- Choosing yarn for your weaving project
- Project planning and calculations
- Wet-finishing woven pieces
Projects
- Notebook Covers on a rigid heddle loom
- Tote bag from a long strip of cloth
- Colour gamp or colour sampler
- Rag rugs
Tools
- Seizenn band weaving pattern editor and the updated version (which is a bit too complicated for me at the moment). These are great for designing cool striped warps for band weaving.
Glossary
- Shed is the opening formed when warp threads are separated
- Pick is a single weft thread in a fabric
- Warp is the threads running the length of your cloth
- Weft is the threads introduced across your weaving
- A heddle is a thing you thread warp yarn through
- Fell line is the front of your weaving
- A dent is an opening in the heddle
- The cloth beam is at the front of your loom, The back beam is at the back of your loom
- Apron rods are mounted to beams
- Stick shuttles should be in proportion to the size of your piece
- Ends per inch measures the number of warp threads
- Sett is the combination of ends and picks per inch
- Take-up describes the length lost when cloth is taken off a loom and Draw-in describes the width lost when cloth is woven
- Loom waste
- Balanced weave has the same number of ends and picks per inch
- Plain weave is one weft thread over one warp thread throughout
- Nap is a fluffy surface from raising part of fibres
Reference materials and general sources
- Vävstuga has a bunch of resources, mostly relating to Swedish weaving. This includes books and videos, as well as in person classes in America
- This knitty article about finishing is my go-to when I’m thinking about how I want to finish off a piece - knots, twists, hemstitching and other alternatives
- This tutorial about how to do indirect warping on pegs for every time I forget which peg to start on.
- Little Looms magazine has loads of ideas specifically for rigid heddle and other small looms, band weaving and the like.
- Laverne Waddington’s blog is the canonical source for everything about backstrap weaving