THINGS TO KNOW WHEN DIRECT WARPING

 There are some things that should be more clearly stated about direct warping that go beyond the back process and often are left out all together.  One of the first things to understand is that when direct warping - whether you are using a single vertical peg, or a horizontal rod as I have described in the article on this site, "Another Way to Direct Warp", multiple pegs, or hybrid warping using a warping board to direct warp - is that all you are doing when you bring the yarn from the loom to the warping peg (etc.) is measuring the yarn to weave the length you want your weave to be on the loom.  That length of warp on the loom is not the length of warp you want your final off the loom length to be. It is longer to account for shrinkage, waste, fringe, tie on, etc. This length is calculated as part of your project calculations with a weaving calculator.  To get that length that the calculator gives you for your warp you need to measure the distance from the warping peg to the position of the apron rod in the back of your loom at which you will warp to.  With a single peg - measure from the center of your loom - to the peg. 

When you warp to a single peg your warp is creating a V shape with the point of the V at the peg and the top of the V at each end of the warp on your heddle. Geometry tells us that the distance from the point of the V to the center point between the two legs of the V at the top of the V is shorter than the the length of each arm of the V. (This can be confusing at first - so take a moment to read that last sentence again and let it sink in.) What does this mean? It means that the warp at the center of the loom is shorter than the warp at the ends - and this distance right and left of the center of your heddle gets longer. You want all of the warp yarn to be AT LEAST the length of the  center of the heddle to the peg. This means you will have longer warp on the sides - but that is necessary when warping with a single peg - or your warp will be too short for your project.  Are you wasting some yarn? Yes. Is there a way around that? Not if you warp to a single peg. With a horizontal rod to warp to you should have equal lengths of warp from heddle to rod. With a warping board for hybrid warp, you will still have the V. With multiple pegs, you will have less of a V though you will create multiple Vs warping to multiple pegs and yarn length will still vary but not as much.. 

 When new weavers direct warp - and some experienced weavers as well who have not figured out this next thing - they often find the warp peg come flying off the table it is attached to and the peg and the yarn come at them at the loom resulting in warp tangled on the floor. Sometimes the warp can be salvaged and sometimes it can't. This happens to many - it happened to me on my second project ever and it happened twice during that warp. The first time I could salvage the yarn. The second time I could not.  Why does this happen? There is too much tension on the warp between the loom and the peg. 

There is no need to have tension on the warp when you are warping to the peg! As we just established above you are measuring the yarn when you warp to the peg. If there is tension on the warp, the warp acts like a spring - if you pull a spring too much it wants to spring back! The peg will only take so much before the warp wants to pull it in the direction from which it is being pulled - and it is going to go flying.  To prevent this there are two things you can do - one is to clamp the peg on the far side of the table and never the side closest to the loom. Closest to the loom if the peg is pulled it has nowhere to go but at you. On the other side of the table when it is pulled it will first pull itself into the edge of the table it is clamped to. But sometimes even that will not stop it and it still comes flying off with the warp. Or the pulling causes the warp to travel up the peg and come off the top.

One other thing that happens when there is too much tension on the warp from the loom to the peg is that you are stretching the yarn. Again, think of the yarn as a spring. As it is pulled it gets longer - much longer than the spring is when it is not being stretched from pulling. And since you are measuring the yarn to the peg, what is happening with the yarn under tension is that when you take the warp off the peg to wind it on the back beam as soon as it is off the top of the peg, the warp yarn RELAXES! And it gets SHORTER! Oops! What you thought was 90" long was stretched to 90" long and it really is 85 inches long or shorter! Your warp is too short for the length of the project you intended to weave, and you won't know it until you get near the end of your warp on the loom while weaving and you are no where near the length you thought you would have.

There is no reason for the tension. It is OK for your warp to sag from the loom to the peg AS LONG AS it sags consistently from one end of the heddle to the other.  This is not a problem. It may be a little longer than you need BUT LONGER IS BETTER THAN SHORTER when it comes to warp! 

But the books say to wind the warp onto the back beam under tension! Yes, it does but you have not been winding on yet - you are just measuring your yarn from the loom to the peg while you warp. When you have warped all of the slots and take the warp off the peg to wind it onto the back beam THAT IS WHEN YOU PUT THE WARP UNDER TENSION. 

When you are more experienced these things start to click and make sense. It really is simple but you don't usually see this in a book or even in the videos showing direct warp to a rigid heddle loom. 

What else can go wrong?  Lets go back a little - before you have warped the loom but are about to start. Look at your loom. The heddle is generally located not at the center of the loom but more toward the back of the loom frame. The space from the heddle to the back of the loom is shorter than the heddle to the front of the loom. SHORT END IS THE BACK OF THE LOOM. LONG END IS THE FRONT OF THE LOOM. THE BACK OF THE LOOM IS THE WARP END. THE FRONT OF THE LOOM IS THE WEAVING AND FINISHED CLOTH END. Before you warp make sure your loom is facing the correct way. AND when direct warping you put the FRONT of the loom toward the warp peg. You bring the warp from the ball of yarn around the back APRON ROD (the apron rod is the dowel or flat "stick" that you attach the warp to) through the slot in the heddle and over to the direct peg - put ir over the peg and come back to do this again for the width of your warp in the heddle.  So now you know what is the back of the loom and what is the front of the loom. You do not want to weave from the back of the loom - the space between the heddle and the beam is just too short.  Weaving is done on the front of the loom - the long part of the loom.  

ALWAYS WARP SO THAT THE YARN IS CENTERED ON THE HEDDLE. (When you get a new heddle the first thing you should do is take a marking pen and make a mark on the heddle frame at the center of the heddle - either that will correspond to a slot or a hole.)  Do not warp with the yarn on one side of the heddle and the rest of the heddle is empty. As you weave you are weaving with the warp under strong tension between the beams. If you are not centered you are pulling he beams on the side the warp is on and the empty side is going to try to flex - which can break the beam. When planning out where your warp will go on the heddle - with the heddle off the loom and in front of you on a table, start at the middle slot and count out to the right and then to the left to find the starting warp slot and the ending warp slot with the center slot in the middle. This means when you count to one side, count the center slot BUT when you count then to the other side do not count the center slot it is already counted - start in that direction with the slot next to the center slot. A simple tip is to take a piece of yarn and tie it around the top of the frame of the loom through the starting slot and another through the ending slot. On the loom when warping start at one marked slot and stop at the other marked slot. If you often use the same widths to weave on that heddle - keep the marking yarns tied on  - use a different color pair of yarns for different weaving widths and make a note of which is which width. (Sounds like it is part of a song in the Wizard of Oz! 😀 )  And before I start singing - we will move on. 😉

Also before you start weaving, you may notice that the heddle (on some looms) is different on one side from the other side. On some rigid heddle looms the heddle is bumped out on one side. On other rigid heddle looms the heddle is flat on both sides. So which is the front of the heddle and which is the back?  With a heddle that is flat on both sides it does not matter. But guess what? On a heddle with the bump out on one side and flat on the other it also does not matter.  Kromski looms and Ashford looms have heddles made with the bump out on one side of the plastic of the heddle - it is in the area of the hole. One thing that this does is strengthen the plastic around the hole. Yarn passing through the hole constantly is not going to wear through that thicker plastic that forms the bump. But is there a front and back and a right side and a wrong side to use to beat with? Not really. Some will say the name of the company that made the heddle is on the front of the heddle. Hmm? Kromski puts the name on the heddle on the same side as the bump out. Ashford puts the name of the heddle on the flat side of the heddle. Which one is right? It is really a matter of personal preference. My own preference is to beat with the heddle with the bump out. I find that it pushes the weft row more directly than the flat side BUT am I right? Some like using the flat side.  Are they wrong? Some looms only have a heddle that is flat on both sides. Is that a problem? NO! There are as many using the bumped out side to beat with as there are those using the flat side when their heddles have two different sides. (An interesting side note - Kromski's 10 dent heddle is flat on both sides. When I asked them about this they had no answer as to why the 10 dent is flat and the 5, 8, and 12 dent heddles are bumped out on one side.) So decide for yourself if you have a bumped out heddle on one side. Try a project one way and another project the other way - and see which you prefer or conclude that there is no preference. 

OK - here is something that comes up in discussions often. You will see in books and in videos on direct warping that it is said that when you put the yarn around the apron rod to put it in the slot you MUST alternate the yarn going over and under the apron rod - first over, then under. When I first started weaving I was making myself crazy making sure that I got this right - checking with each warp slot that I passed the loop of yarn through. GUESS WHAT? The yarn goes this way whether you think about it or not. It can only go this way - over and under alternating - it does it itself. If it is not, you did something wrong in bringing the yarn from the ball to go around the apron rod and through the slot. It really cannot go any other way if you are warping correctly. 

 When you wind the warp onto the back beam, you are winding the apron rod on with the warp tied on  to it and with the warp UNDER TENSION (how you put the tension on is another article in itself), you must put a warp separator under every layer of warp that you wind on. Warp separator can be as simple as sheets of brown package wrapping paper. A warp separator must be thick and it must not compress so that the one layer of warp sinks into the war layer below. Thin paper - even thin cloth  is not a good warp separator as it will push in with each warp under tension and push into the row below and maybe even rip the paper. The purpose of the separator is to keep each layer of warp apart and not mixing into the layer below.  Some use flat strips of wood put in between the warp as it is wound on. Some use the rubber no slip shelf liner - the one with the bumps on the surface of rubber. Many use the package wrapping paper which is sold in office stores or even Walmart in the stationary aisle. That paper lasts for a long time and many weaves.

There is such a thing as double warp. I am not going to go into how that is done but know that it is two warp threads in each slot and each hole. The yarn that this is done with MUST be thin enough to fit doubled in a slot and in a hole. Don't force it in - it will just rub and break as you are weaving. A beginning weaver should not be doing double warp until they have a lot of experience with single regular warp.

What can go wrong while warping? 

 If you find that there is not enough warp yarn on the ball after you have been warping and then passing  the loop through the slot in the heddle does not make it to the peg, stop and bring that loop back to the loom. Pass it back through to the back of the heddle and tie it onto the apron rod. Get another ball of warp yarn and tie the end on the apron rod and keep warping, Make sure you are starting in the now empty slot that you found the warp was too short to make it to the peg. It is always good to have another ball of yarn on hand - for warp and for weft.

Before you take your warp off the warping peg, go across every slot and make sure you have not missed any slots that needed a warp loop going to the peg. It is far easier now to fix this than later.

When tying on the warp to the warp apron rod - at the start of your warp or at the end - or in between - make sure your knots are strong and cannot come loose. A loose knot here will cause problems when you get toward the end of the weave. Double - even triple knots are good! 

When you have tied your warp to the front beam, every bundle of warp that is tied on must be equal in tension to all of the others. Go along the bundles and the warp behind the heddle with two fingers and tap gently. Every bundle must feel the same tension. If not you will have problems when you weave. It can take multiple adjustments back and forth across the warp bundles to get them even. Time spent here with this will save problems later.

 

Once you have finished warping go and read my article on weaving a header. That is the next thing you have to do before you start weaving with your project yarn! 

 

Yes, the Kromski Heddle Does Stay in the Up Position on the Loom

I often see comments about how someone's Kromski heddle on their Kromski loom will not stay in the up position on their loom. I have answered this many times and it is time I wrote an article about it.

The Kromski heddle and heddle blocks are designed to hold the loom solid in the up position IF the tension on the warp is fairly tight. Not break the beam tight but it is best described as drum tight. That is a term I have used when teaching miniature punchneedle embroidery which also needs to have the cloth in the hoop "drum tight". On the hoop it is easy to explain - tap on the top of the cloth in the hoop and it sounds like a little drum. With the loom, the warp is not going to make any sound if you tap on it, but if you push gently down on it about an inch down there should be resistance. Here is a photo with my fingers pushing down on the warp when the heddle is in the up position -

You see just three fingers lightly pushing down. On just the warp threads it pushes only slightly further (a photo did not show this well). Getting the tension here is not hard. Wind the warp to put some tension on it. Put the heddle heddle up. If it does not stay up by itself or it falls, increase the tension on the warp to the point that the heddle is solid on the top of the blocks. Like this -

See how the warp holds the heddle in place. And see that there are on need for rubber bands wrapped around the top of the heddle block and there is certainly no need for cutting into the notch on the top of the heddle block! Wow! Somethings that I have heard people do rather than get the heddle to stand as it was intended to.

Once it is staying up there, if you feel there is too much tension, then open a pawl (front or back) and move the ratchet one or two notches less. Put the pawl back on the ratchet to lock it and put the heddle back up - if it stays fine. If not, the tension has to go back to where it was - one notch at a time if you lowered it more than one notch.

One thing to know about putting the heddle in both the top and bottom positions is that you pivot the heddle into place. See how the bottom of the heddle frame sits in the notch in the photo above. Put it there first on an angle with the top of the heddle toward you and push the top of the frame up to put the loom straight on the block. It will move against the back of the notch and stay there.

For putting the heddle in the bottom position it is the same thing - with this same tension, put the TOP corner of the heddle frame on the top notch - both sides at the same time - always - and have the bottom of the heddle frame coming toward you. Have your thumbs push the top of the frame toward the back of the loom so that the bottom of the heddle swings into place to the bottom of the heddle block - and it will make a sound "SNAP" - you might even say "Pop" as in Pop Goes the Heddle. 😄 It makes a very definite connection - and stays there!  I love the sound the heddle makes when it snaps into place on the bottom position.

Here is the heddle in the bottom position -

So - it really does work. Don't crank up your tension to the point that it will do damage - but the tension has to be correct for the Kromski heddle to stay solidly in place - up or down! And each time you advance the warp you are releasing the tension to wind the cloth on the front beam and when done you need to return the tension to where it was.

When you finish weaving for the day - or will be away from the loom for several hours, take the tension off the warp - just enough for the warp and cloth to go slightly slack - not too much! This will reduce any stretch on the warp and also any stress on the loom while you are not weaving. 

DIY Bobbin Winder for Boat Shuttle Bobbins for Under $2 or Less!

A boat shuttle can be a fun accessory for a rigid heddle loom. They are used instead of the usual stick shuttle that comes with rigid heddle looms. With a rigid heddle loom they do have some drawbacks as they can only hold as much yarn as will fit on a bobbin and with the usual knitting yarns used by many to weave as weft on their rigid heddle looms they do not hold very much of that yarn and that means ending and starting a new bobbin frequently as you weave along with the many end and start ends you will have when your weaving comes off the loom. They are great, however, with thin yarns and you can get a good amount of finer yarns on a bobbin that will keep you weaving.

I am not going to go into buying a boat shuttle. One thing that you need to know before buying a boat shuttle is how large top to bottom is your open shed in either the up or down position of the heddle. The boat shuttle must fit through this opening with room to spare so that it will go from one side of the loom to the other as you weave. So before buying a boat shuttle measure the open shed and buy a boat shuttle that will easily fit and not be tight against the top and bottom of the shed as it passes through. There are several boat shuttles that will fit and one of the companies even makes a boat shuttle that they call "slim" that should fit a rigid heddle loom.

But once you have your boat shuttle you need to wind the weft yarn onto the shuttle's bobbin. This can be done by hand but while some do it, it is not practical. You would rather spend the time weaving. You want to wind the bobbin fast. There are manually cranked and electric motor winders sold - and they are expensive. But most have around the house a common tool that is perfect for winding a boat shuttle bobbin - an electric variable speed drill. Good for all kinds of projects around the house. And it is good for winding bobbins - but you need a secure way to get the bobbin onto the drill.

Here is a bobbin carrier that will cost you less than $2 at any home or hardware store. You will need:

1 six inch dome head screw bolt 1/4" in diameter
1 nut to fit bolt
1 small washer to fit bolt
2 larger washers to fit bolt

 

The bobbin for my boat shuttle is four inches long. The screw bolt is six inches long. This allows two inches to be tightened securely into the drill chuck. Boat shuttle bobbins can be different lengths. If your shuttle uses longer than a four inch long bobbin you would just need to get a screw bolt two inches longer than the bobbin length.  Also check the hole diameter in your bobbin. If it is wider than 1/4" then get a bolt that will just fit in - don't get a bolt that is much smaller than the hole in the bobbin. If you do, it will not wind evenly as it turns on the drill.

Here is how this will go together -

The small washer goes on first. This is to give a flat base to sit against the top of the screw. One of the large washer's goes on next. Then the bobbin is slid on. Next goes the second large washer goes on, Then put the nut on the bottom of the screw and tighten the nut against the washer to hold the bobbin securely on the bolt. Do not over tighten. Do not use any tool. Just turn the nut on with your fingers.

Put the end of the screw (not the dome end into the drill chuck and tighten the chuck. A variable speed drill will turn faster or slower by how much you hold the trigger in. You are going to start winding your yarn onto the bobbin SLOWLY.  First - with no yarn pull the trigger of the drill and see where you want to hold the trigger in to get a slow and steady wind. Also take note of the direction the drill is going. Most of these drills are also reversible so if you want it to turn the other way there will be a switch to do that. Take the end of your yarn and wrap it around catching the end under one of the hand wraps you do here at the top of the bobbin and make sure you are wrapping the same way the drill will turn. Now pull the trigger just a little and get the bobbin turning and you will have your yarn now winding on the bobbin.

 As it is winding hold your yarn with one hand while you hold and work the drill with the other. Move the yarn from top to bottom and back again along the bobbin as the drill turns and wind the yarn evenly along the bobbin. Once you have the wind going evenly you can squeeze the drill trigger harder and increase the speed - but don't get carried away! Once the yarn comes toward the top of the ends of the bobbin stop. Your bobbin is wound!

 This yarn is a #3 crochet cotton/wool blend. The thickest yarn I will use with the boat shuttle is a #1 knitting weight sock yarn. Anything thicker and I will go back to using a stick shuttle.

Cut the yarn between the screw and the ball. Take the screw out of the drill - just reverse how you turned the chuck to tighten it so that now you loosen it. Take the nut off the bolt, slide down the lower washer and slide off the bobbin. You are now ready to weave!

It is a good idea to buy a number of bobbins. They are often sold by the dozen. You can then wind all your needed bobbins for your project right at the start and have them ready to slide onto the shuttle when one ends.

It is easy. It works better than trying to chuck a pencil into a drill to hold a bobbin. (I tried that and was not happy with it.) And the price is right!

Another way to Direct Warp

Direct warping is a method of measuring the yarn for your warp at the same time that you are putting it on the loom. The usual method of direct warping - and there are many free videos on YouTube to show how to do this - is to clamp an vertical peg to a table (some use the top of a chair back) that is the distance from the apron dowel of your loom that the warp is to be long, and warp from the back of the loom tying your first warp thread to the apron dowel and then passing a loop of that warp through the first slot you have calculated to start your warp in to go across the loom the number of slots and holes also calculated. The heddle hook or slay hook is used to pick up the loop from the opposite side of the heddle, through the slot toward you and then catching the loop and pulling from back to front through that slot. This puts TWO warp threads (it is a loop that is going through) now on the cloth side of the heddle. You get up, take that loop in your fingers and walk it across the room to the warping peg and place the loop over and down on the vertical peg. You carry the yarn now back with you to the loom and then continue with the warp thread (placed under the loom on the warp side) and keep passing loops through. This is a simplified explanation of the process.

Now, what can go wrong? Well, if you put too much tension on that warp loop as you carry it down to the peg, you transfer that tension to the warp on the peg when you put it on - and you may just find that the peg comes flying off the table - and all the warp becomes a tangled mess on the floor - sometimes impossible to get straightened out - and usually just as you were about to finish the warp. That is one thing that can go wrong. Another problem is that if the peg is not tall enough, you can run out of peg before you are finished and you will find yourself pushing it all down as best you can to make more room. And still another problem is that with the warp going across the loom to a single point - the peg - you create a V from peg to loom with the closed end of the V at the peg. The distance from each side of the loom to the middle will be at different lengths.

So what can you do about this. I was a wonderful idea shared on one of the Weaving Facebook groups by a very smart lady, Ingrid Koch. She came up with a horizontal warping rod instead of a warping peg. As I recall, she used a curtain rod. I looked at her idea and decided to come up with something a little stronger and a way to secure it to a table.

I decided to use a thick wood dowel - about 3/4" in diameter and three feet wide. My loom is 32" wide so the 36" long dowel was more than enough for a full warp across the loom. Here is a photo of what I came up with -

What you see here are two stand brackets to hold the rod. The table they are on is a garden folding table from IKEA and I bought this table for this purpose - and to use for other weaving related tasks. With this table the brackets are held down to the surface of the table with a screw bolt passed up through the slot of the table through the bracket and tightened on with a wing nut - there is a washer both above and below the bracket. One bracket is cut shorter than the other, but the bottom of the slot that holds the dowel start at the same height from the table.

 
The rod is level across sitting in the brackets. One side is short because this is the side of the rod that will be lifted to slide the warp loop onto. The other bracket is taller so that the dowel does not slip off as the other end is lifted up.  In this photo you will see a permanent mark in the exact middle of the dowel. You know when you are half way across your heddle your warp should be right there at that mark on the dowel. There are two pieces of removable painters tape that mark the point the first loop should be placed next to - since I warp right to left - that would be the edge of the tape on the right and the spot the last loop is placed - that is the tape on the left. What you see on the right end (outside the bracket on the dowel) is a bubble level. I will explain why that is there later.

So now instead of walking to a vertical peg, with this you walk to the left end of the dowel, lift that end enough to get the warp loop over, and drop the warp loop down at the dowel starting at the edge of the right piece of tape. Let's say I am warping a warp that is to be 104" each warp thread. That warp loop is now 104 inches away from the apron dowel going through the first slot I am warping. The next loop goes right next to that - again 104" long. This goes on for the full width of the warp. When you are done you will have a very straight warp from the warping dowel through the slots in the heddle to and across the apron dowel. This will be the same when the warp is wound onto the warp beam under tension. Every warp thread the same length. All nice and neatly lined up across the beam. If the warp is 12 inches across the apron dowel, it will be 12 inches across the warping rod.

With this, it is hard for the warp to fly off. The brackets are securely attached - you could put these on any table edge using two soft faced wood clamps found at any home or tool store. You have a length of dowel to hold your warp as long as the number of slots you are warping through. You don't have to put a lot of tension on the warp - just enough to keep it from sagging.

Let me step aside a moment to say this - when you are direct warping, your main goal is to measure the warp length and not to put tension on the warp. The tension will be put on by your helper when you wind on the warp on the warp beam.

When you or your partner are taking the rod off the brackets when you are ready to wind the warp onto the back beam, lift it straight up off the brackets just high enough to clear them. You now need to get this to the front of the table. This is easy with this particular table that I picked as it is a gate leg table and what my wife does (who is my warping helper) is move the gate leg closed with her foot from the back of the table and the top comes down. With a table that you cannot do this with, move the rod forward to the front of the table(the tension will be lost but don't worry as the length will not change). Get around to the front and have your helper get hold of the rod  and you move the table so that there is room to get tension back on the warp on the rod. If you remove the warp from the rod at the table, you can warp as you usually would do by tying a string or yarn around all of the warp, and then weight that and warp alone. If you have a helper and you leave the warp on the rod held level and straight as you wind on you will get a nice even warp each thread lying next to each other on your back beam. An alternative is to weight down the table. Leave the warp on the rod and the rod in the brackets, start winding on and let the loom be pulled toward the table and the rod as you wind. Get up and walk behind the loom as you do this.

I mention here about hold the rod level. I find that this makes a difference in getting a good wind when using a rod like this. That mystery item on the right end of the rod in the first photo is a little bubble level. You can find these for a few dollars in Walmart in the Auto section where they have a section of RV supplies. It is a package of two and these little levels have peel and stick adhesive on the bottom. Stick it on the end of the rod and then whoever is holding the rod while you are winding on will see the bubble and if it is not in the middle the rod (dowel) is not level. Move that end up or down a little and the bubble goes to the middle. I added this when my wife said that it looked level as she was holding the dowel in her two hands but was not sure. I could see from across the room that it was way off. She can now see the level and adjust the dowel as needed.

If you leave the warp on the dowel until it gets to the front of the loom, you will have a nice even wind on the beam - every warp thread lined up on the beam just as it will come off the beam while weaving. Thread your holes following the order and you will have no crossed warp threads coming off the warp beam!

This works. I was not happy with the direct warp vertical peg. This solved all of the problems I was having with it!

ADDENDUM:

I have been asked about the size of the table. Here are the dimensions of the table - 28.5" high, 24.5" wide, with one gate leg up - 29.75" long, and with the two gate legs up - 51.75" long.  The table is heavy and I purposely looked for a heavy table so that the table would not move when warping.  The slats in the top make it easy to anchor the brackets. This table from IKEA is an outdoor table - available during the Spring and summer months.This link will bring you to the IKEA page for this table (as long as IKEA still offers this table) -   https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/aepplaroe-gateleg-table-outdoor-brown-stained-brown-50208535/

STARTING A NEW PROJECT

When I am planning a new project to put on the loom, after I have decided what the project will be, I need to know how much yarn I need to have for the project. There are mathematical calculations to do that will make a close estimate to how much yarn the project will need for both warp and weft.  There are a lot of calculators out on the internet and in the calculations can be found in weaving books. Many weaving books will have a project planning sheet that will let you write in the numbers needed and will lead you through the calculations to do to get how much warp and how much weft the project will use.

These are all nice. I have tried several. I have a good background in math but sometimes the worksheets or written out calculations in books can be confusing. I like things nice and simple so I have taken the best of what I have seen and put together a computer Excel spreadsheet that does it all - and made this simpler than many I have seen and also uses calculations based on the weft yarn to be used that will more accurately give how much weft yarn is needed rather than a simple percentage of the warp yarn needed that is always a lower amount than warp - which I have sometimes found not always to be even close - and generally not enough weft, which means you can find yourself short. I will share that spreadsheet file with you in this article, but first you need to understand some of the numbers that it is going to ask you to enter.

First, you need to decide how long and how wide your finished project will be. This is simple enough and it is a decision that you need to make for any weaving project you want to weave. This is easiest done in inches and the spreadsheet will ask for this in inches.

ALL YELLOW cells are INPUT points - this is where you put in your numbers. ALL GREEN cells are ANSWERS! Ignore the white cells - they are there to see what is being used for calculations.

The next thing you need to decide on is what weight yarn you will be using. In knitting yarn there will be a number found on the yarn label such as #4 - which is worsted weight yarn or #3 - which is known as baby weight, sport weight, or DK weight (all the same), and others (from #1 to #7) The weight of the yarn will decide the heddle that you will use. Generally a #4 weight yarn uses an 8 or 7.5 dent heddle. You can use a thinner yarn in a heddle than the usual thickness it is made for, but you can't use a thicker yarn as it will rub and wear in the slots and holes as it passes through - if it fits through at all. A smaller thickness yarn is fine. The resulting weave will just be looser and that results in more drape in the final weaving - which can be a good thing. I am not going to go into all of the details as all of this is basic to learning how to weave. My intent here is to help and not to teach from scratch. In the spreadsheet the weight of the yarn is going to go into the epi and the ppi entries.

EPI - ends per inch and relates to WARP
PPI - picks per incn and relates to WEFT (A pick is a single passing of the shuttle from one side to the other.)

If you don't know the EPI, you can measure it easily. Take any straight ruler. Wrap the yarn evenly starting at an inch mark and wrap not too tight and not too lose to the next inch mark. Count the number of wraps and DIVIDE by TWO (2). The result is EPI.

NOW - I am going to share what I do. I decide what heddle I am going to use - let's say the 8 dent heddle that came with my Kromski loom and I know that the dent of this heddle means that it is 8 ends of yarn in one inch. Even if I am going to use a thinner WARP than the usual #4 which should come out close to 8 EPI (not always but close), the EPI I put in the spreadsheet will be 8. If I am using the same yarn for the weft, then the PPI that I put into the spreadsheet will also be 8. If you have a 7.5 dent heddle this would be 7.5 for your heddle. If I am using a thicker or thinner WEFT - I will measure this yarn on the ruler and use that number instead - why? Because this will effect the amount of weft yarn that will be needed.

When you enter the EPI you are going to get a calculated number of WARP ENDS which may be a number with a fraction. Since you can warp a fraction of a yarn, the calculator will automatically NEXT give you a whole number of warp ends - which will be HOW MANY SLOTS AND HOLES you will warp. NOW YOU KNOW HOW MANY SLOTS AND HOLES YOU WILL WARP.

Next you are going to put in the length you plan to weave - the finished length of the project. The spreadsheet is now going to calculate how much warp you need to buy. Remember all of these numbers are inches!

The spreadsheet uses a general 10% calculation for shrinkage and pull in. This is how much extra that the spreadsheet is calculating in for this. IF YOU NEED OR WANT A LARGER OR SMALLER PERCENTAGE FOR SHRINKAGE AND PULL IN, CHANGE THE % NUMBER TO WHAT YOU WANT. ALWAYS INCLUDE THE % SIGN WITH YOUR NUMBER.

YOU NOW KNOW HOW LONG EACH WARP YARN THREAD NEEDS TO BE. If you are direct warping, this is how MANY INCHES YOU NEED FOR THE REAR BEAM OF YOUR LOOM TO BE AWAY FROM YOUR WARPING PEG. (WHOLE INCHES WARP LENGTH)

At this point you get the AMOUNT OF WARP THAT YOU WILL NEED IN BOTH INCHES AND YARDS. As most yarns are labeled in YARDS, you now know how much WARP to buy.

NEXT the spreadsheet works on WEFT.


The length of your weaving has already been entered based on the above calculations and taking shrinkage into account. All you need to enter is the PPI. The amount of WEFT needed will then be calculated for you.

Understand that it is better to have more yarn than less. I always buy an extra skein of yarn more than the calculations tell me to buy. I buy in local retail stores that have no problem taking returns on yarn. If I can't return the yarn I have added to me stash for future use. Many yarns are in dye lots. This means that the yarn color when dyed may vary from one dye batch to another and those in the SAME DYE LOT will be the SAME. The yarn label will tell you the Dye Lot number or Code. Always buy the same Dye Lot number on the same color yarn that you buy for a project.

OK - Here is the link to the spreadsheet. When you go to the site the file is on, you will be able to download it to your computer. Please click on the DOWNLOAD Button on the top of the menu to the right. DO NOT USE THIS FILE ON THE SITE - EVEN THOUGH THIS IS POSSIBLE. NEVER SAVE OVER THIS FILE ON THE SITE YOU FIND IT ON. THIS SPREADSHEET IS FOR YOUR USE ONLY - DO NOT SHARE IT WITH ANYONE. IF someone wants it, send them to this article and they can download it themselves.

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE EXCEL, YOU CAN DOWNLOAD A FREE VERSION OF AN EXCEL OFFICE SUITE FROM LIBREOFFICE. 

Another TIP - Put the spreadsheet file on your cell phone. There are a number of free excel compatible Android or Iphone office suite apps that will open the file and let you do calculations right in the yarn store!


THE LINK - EMAIL US WITH YOUR REQUEST

RH WEAVING CALCULATOR

First Project as a Learning Project

 NEW INTRODUCTION TO THIS ARTICLE:

A very first weaving project needs to be a learning project. The project's only intent is to learn how to weave on your new rigid heddle loom. As when learning anything new, one needs to start with the very basics. When learning how to swim one starts out in the shallow end of the swimming pool. One does not go directly to the high diving board, and jump into the deep end of the pool. Similarly, when learning how to weave you need to do a basic project with inexpensive yarn. Do not use your best handspun or that really nice, but expensive yarn that caught your eye at the last fiber arts show you attended and just had to buy. Buy a cheap yarn in two contrasting colors of the same yarn. One will be your warp yarn and the other will be your weft yarn. The two contrasting colors are to show you clearly as you are learning how the warp and weft yarns interact with each other as you weave. Weave a plain weave - no fancy pattern weaves! You want a simple and basic balanced weave in which both the warp and weft show equally in the cloth you are weaving. Do not warp the full width of your loom. Center a warp of no more than 10" on a wide loom or 7" on a narrow loom on your heddle.This learning project does not need to be long - you could do a short 48" weave to learn with or if you want go a full 72" which is the typical length of a scarf.  Use a yarn that matches the dent on your heddle. Many looms come in the box with either an 8 or 7.5 dent heddle - this heddle is perfect for a #4 worsted yarn. Some looms come in the box with a 10 dent heddle - this is perfect for a #3 Sport. DK, or Baby yarn. Your warp yarn must be strong enough to withstand the tension that needs to be put on it by the loom so that the weave forms correctly. Do this pull test - take the yarn at an end in two hands - pull your hands apart hard and with a snap. If the yarn breaks or starts to come apart - IT IS NOT A YARN TO USE AS WARP.  If the yarn is fuzzy or sticky, it is not a good yarn for warp or weft FOR A BEGINNER.

A first weave can be very frustrating - if you have too high an expectation of what it MUST be as you learn. Again, you are learning. The only thing to be expected is you learn to weave - and you will! Many first time weavers have been able to teach themselves with the help of a good book (Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom by Syne Mitchell is the best) and videos on YouTube. Now, if you ask what I am making, the answer is a learning project. What will it be when I am finished? You will know when you are finished. Don't start out with the idea that I have to make SOMETHING. That can only lead to frustration if it is not coming out exactly as you had pictured before you even warped the loom.  What is you make mistakes? So what! Mistakes are what we learn from. Don't rush through the project. Allow yourself time to absorb what you are doing and learning. And also this allows you to start to relax and enjoy what you are doing. What if it doesn't come out? Do not get discouraged. You will not be the first weaver - new or experienced  - to cut a project off the loom and start again. 

Most important - HAVE FUN!  Weaving can be addictive! It seems to be that more so than some other crafts and hobbies.  

ORIGINAL ARTICLE STARTS HERE:

When I was ready to start weaving my first project ever on the rigid heddle loom, I decided that this project was going to be a test project. I would use this project to try different things. I would try a firm beat, a light beat, and a medium beat. I would try a pattern in the warp. I would try something called hemstitching on one end (usually you hemstitch both ends). I will go into details about hemstitching in another article. When this test project came off the loom, I would try wet finishing the weaving to see what the result was.

*****A word about wet finishing. Weavers will tell you that when the weaving comes off the loom, it is NOT cloth UNTIL it is wet finished. Wet finishing brings all of the fibers together. How you wet finish depends on the fiber you wove with. Cotton is wet finished differently than wool. Acrylic is wet finished differently from either of those. Some will tell you that acrylic does not benefit from wet finishing - I disagree. I see a big positive change in acrylic after it is wet finished. Another article will go into detail about wet finishing.

I decided right from the start that I would keep a journal of my weaving projects. I used a basic word processor to do this and stared with my test project. It is because of that journal that I can share all of the details of that project with you here.

I have a large stash of yarns from a knitting machine that I have not used in years and also yarn from various other crafts. I had several balls of a commonly found cotton yarn called Sugar and Cream. You can find this yarn in almost every chain craft store, Joann's Fabrics, and Walmart sells this renames and packaged as Peaches and Cream (same exact yarn made by the same manufacturer with a different label and name. This is 100% yarn of worsted weight and 4 ply which is perfectly sized for an 8 or 7.5 dent heddle. I had enough solid Delft Blue for a 45" long  and a 12" width. I had enough variegated Blue Swirl for weft. Remember that the end result had no determined purpose other than to be a test of weaving. My intent when I started was to stop weaving when I reached 14" long and I would see when it came off the loom - and after wet finishing what the end result would really be.

There are weaving calculators. Most weaving books have a fill in form which specifies what to calculate when. The weaving calculators on the web are either used right on their own web page or downloaded to put into spreadsheet software. If you don't have spreadsheet software on your computer you can download a free - really free with no catch - office suite called LibreOffice which is Microsoft compatible and has a full spreadsheet program within. Using one of these calculators, I determined that I would need a full ball of Sugar and Cream for warp and almost a full ball - 31 yards for weft.

Warping would require that 96 slots and holes needed to be warped which means there would be 48 threads of warp in slots and 48 slots of warp in holes. The heddle is marked and this should be easy.  Determine the start and end slot to put the loops of warp threads through when direct single peg warping and I had to go seven inches from each side of the middle. Now, what I discovered doing this was that I was warping 98 threads. Why? Putting a ruler up against the heddle I could see that what should be an inch was not exactly an inch. This may have to do with the metric conversion from a European heddle made in centimeters to inches. This was not a problem. I just deleted one slot and hole on the end of the warp and finished the warp two threads short to make 96 threads. I also learned right then that to make really sure where you will start and stop use your markings on the heddle as a starting point and then just count the slots and holes to make sure they coincide with what the warp needs to be. I use a piece of yarn tied through the starting slot around the top of the heddle and another through the ending slot . This tells you immediately where to start and where to end when warping. On warp widths that I use often I keep that yarn tied in place.

I set the warp peg 45" away from the rear beam of the loom. I attached the peg to a wood snack table. I was not sure if this would work and on this project I found it to be OK - but with later projects this was a disaster waiting to happen. The best thing to attach your warping peg to is something that is either heavy and will not move or stationary.

I use a long cloth tape measure (one that is at least 120" long) to measure the distance from the peg to the back of the warp beam on the loom. These tape measures are not hard to find and Walmart has one for the best price.

Sugar and Cream yarn is sold wound on a ball and this is an easy yarn to pull off the ball as you go along to warp or wind your stick shuttle. There is no need to wind this yarn from a skein into a ball as is often done with yarn that is sold as a skein. This is another reason to use this yarn for a first project. The yarn is also strong and has little stretch. This makes this yarn very easy to weave.

With the loom warped, I saw that the 32" stick shuttles that came with my loom were a bit long for a 12" warped project to weave. They would work but a shorter shuttle would be better. I decided to make a 16" shuttle. I will do an article about how to make a stick shuttle with simple woodworking skills. If you know someone with a basement or garage workshop it takes very little time and money to make a shuttle.  Shuttles are for sale in all sizes from various weaving retailers on the Internet if you need to purchase shorter shuttles.

I wound the weft yarn on the shuttle and I was finally READY TO WEAVE!

Weaving was not hard and very relaxing. I tried different things as I went along. I started without hemstitching and with my first throw of the shuttle I left several inches of yarn hanging out to work in on the next throw from that side. This is simple. When you open the shed when you get back to that side, you tuck that tail into the shed and and then down between two warp threads to hand down under the loom. Then you take your shuttle and weave through the open shed. When you beat the yarn with your heddle that tail is locked in and will not be noticeable.

I really was enjoying weaving! When I reached the 14" of length that I intended to weave I decided to just keep going for as far as I could and still leave yarn at the end for fringe. The end would be hemstitched so when I was at the end I made sure that I had five continuous lengths of yarn the size of the width of the warp that I would use to hemstitch. Again, this will make more sense when I explain hemstitching in its own article.

When I took the weaving off the loom it measured 11 inches wide - from pull in which is common - and 25" long. After I wet finished this piece it became 23" long and 10.5" in width. The yarn pulled in and also shrank - cotton shrinks - approximately 8%. I also found that this yarn's dark colors - the dark blue in the Blue Swirl ran. Others report also that Sugar and Cream (and Peaches and Cream) dark colors will run. The result was not bad.

I found one warp skipped in one spot which can happen if the shuttle slips below a warp thread instead of moving over it. There is a way to fix this. It was only visible from one side and I left it.

Now what had I made. It looked good. It was too good to just set aside - and so, I had woven a short table runner which sits on our dining room table since. I loved weaving it and could not wait to start my next - real and not test - project.

Some Resources to Get You Started Weaving

I taught myself how to weave. I used two books and a number of videos that I watched several times to get myself acquainted enough to sit down at the loom and start weaving. There was also a good download file from Kromski that applies to all looms that helped to get me started. I also joined several groups on Facebook to have places to ask questions and get quick answers by those more experienced than I.

BOOKS

When I bought the loom I also ordered a book that came well recommended on how to weave on a rigid heddle loom. This book turned out to be a disappointment when I received it and at first I was getting a bit frustrated and knew that I needed something with clearer photos and more detail in explanation. When I put that out on one of the Facebook a different book was recommended and it has been my go to book since I started weaving a year ago. This book is Inventive Weaving On a Little Loom by Syne Mitchell. It has large color photos and good instructions on what to do at each step of the way. As the book goes along it introduces more advanced techniques that make this book valuable beyond just a beginner's book. I highly recommend this book. I wish that I had learned of this book from the start.

I have four books on Rigid Heddle weaving - here they are:

Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom - Syne Mitchell - Storey Press

Hands On Rigid Heddle Weaving - Betty Lynn Davenport -  Interweave Press
 (Not a bad book but needs more photos than line drawings and more detail - I do refer to this book for somethings.)

Weaving Made Easy - Liz Gipson - Interweave Press
 (Covers a few things the other books don't. Focus is on projects with plans.)

Simple Woven Projects - Sarah Goldenberg & Jane Patrick - Interweave Press
  (Clothing patterns and projects made on a rigid heddle loom)

All of these books have projects of items to weave.

VIDEOS

ASSEMBLY OF THE KROMSKI HARP FORTE - 

Assembly of the Kromski Harp Forte

The Kromski Series - 

These apply to any rigid heddle loom.

Kromski Harp, Understanding the Rigid Heddle Loom, Part 1

Kromski Harp, Understanding the Rigid Heddle Loom, Part 2

Kromski Harp, Understanding the Rigid Heddle Loom, Part 3

Kromski Harp - Part 1 - Using the Warping Board

Kromski Harp - Part 2 - Using the Warping Peg

Kromski Harp - Part 3 - Dressing the Loom

Kromski Harp - Part 4 - Weaving

Warping the Harp - Using Warping Sticks


From Ashford
 
These apply to any rigid heddle loom.

Simple Warping for a Rigid Heddle Loom

Spreading the Warp on a Rigid Heddle Loom 

Tying on a Warp on a Rigid Heddle Loom 

Weaving on the SampleIt Loom

 
 PDF FILE

This applies to any loom. 

Starting a Project on a Kromski Loom

   This file starts by saying it is assembly but a few pages in it starts a project. 

RIGID HEDDLE FACEBOOK GROUPS

Rigid Heddle Loom Weaving

Rigid Heddle Adventure 

Rigid Heddle Loom Endeavor 

Rigid Heddle Looms 

Weaving    (general weaving group with rigid heddle weavers also on it)

If you are not a member of Facebook you cannot join these groups but these are worthwhile resources to make being on Facebook worthwhile - even if you don't do anything else on Facebook. There are other forums that have sub-groups for rigid heddle weaving but these are not as responsive as the groups on Facebook. Two of these are:

Weavolution

Ravelry




As we go along with these articles there will be more resources shared.










 
 

Buying My Loom

When I first saw the loom that I eventually would buy, I had no intention of buying a loom. My wife and I... oh yes, I am a  man... went to a quilt show in Pennsylvania in September of 2015 and when we arrived we looked in the schedule of free workshops and presentations and saw one that was a bit out of the ordinary for a quilt show. It was on weaving on a loom. Of course, this had nothing to do with quilts but the vendors at quilt shows often come with a variety of fiber related things for sale and the vendor that was giving this presentation sold yarn and related fiber arts supplies.

Hmm - I have always wanted a "real" loom. I had woven on a plastic toy loom that actually had the ability to weave a fairly decent but narrow piece of cloth or cloth band.  and an inkle loom that I made myself. An inkle loom weaves bands and straps and uses no heddle but your hand pushes down on two different sets of threads to open and close two sheds. I enjoyed weaving on that loom until it broke - during a demonstration that I was giving with it at a regional fair. The inkle loom was set aside broken in the basement after that. I had pretty much put the idea of weaving aside while I pursued other crafts - some professionally.  Well, this presentation was tempting and we decided that we would go to see it.

We sat down on the chairs in the program area and a woman came to the front carrying a loom on a stand. The chairs quickly filled and she began her presentation on the Kromski Rigid Heddle Loom. She told everyone that this was the largest loom that Kromski makes - 32" wide and that it also is available in widths of 8", 16", 24" and this 32" loom. All of the looms are made the same she went on to say and that these were the newest made by this company as they had a new feature being included - metal ratchets and pawls. At that time this did not mean much to me. I knew that the ratchets and pawls are the gears and catches that hold the yarn at tension from the back beam to the front beam and allow those beams to be turned to wind the yarn on that you will weave with and the cloth on the other side that you have woven as you go. I did not know until she said it that the Kromski is the only rigid heddle loom that now uses metal for these instead of a composite plastic or nylon. Metal is stronger. Strength for this purpose is important. (I learned something in the first few minutes of the presentation!) She also went on to say that the loom folds in half for easy storage and when it folds it can have the yarn on it. (Some other rigid heddle looms do this also.) She went on to say that the loom is made of hand selected, furniture grade hardwood in Poland and the wood is finished like fine furniture. I could see that. What my wife could see was that I was getting really caught up in this presentation. The loom was attached to a stand that was an optional purchase. The stand matched the loom and was made specifically for it of the same wood that the looms are made of. As a woodworker, I could see that the loom and stand were well made and nicely finished. She also said that when folded the loom fit in another optional accessory - a carry bag made specifically for each size loom. And the carry bag also held the stand disassembled.

When the loom bug has buzzed around my head in the past there were always two stumbling blocks - and until now I had not known about rigid heddle looms but only about more traditional multi-shaft looms. One stumbling block was the space that a loom would take up in the house - we live in a small house. The other was always the price with looms that I was aware of over a thousand and higher. This loom folded! This loom had a bag to store it in! My mind started thinking about all the corners of the house I could use this loom in and then store it in if necessary. Was it heavy? I did not know. I did she this woman carry the loom on its stand into the presentation so it could not be that heavy. (It isn't as I would soon find out for myself.) The price? As of yet, unknown.

Then she started weaving on the loom. It had a shawl already started on it. This was not the first day of this quilt show and she had given this presentation before. The shawl was the width of the loom. She showed how all she had to do was lift the heddle up to open one set of threads and pass the shuttle from one side to the other, move the heddle down to open the other set of threads and pass the shuttle back again. It was that easy. She went along and wove several rows. She commented that you always know what side to raise the heddle and what side to lower the heddle by the side the shuttle was on - and remarked that if you always start the same way, you can not go wrong. Interesting. Maybe obvious, but not to me at that point. Start with the shuttle on the right she said and raise the heddle. When the shuttle is on the left side, lower the heddle. (I was really getting hooked!)

I liked the loom. My wife could tell. I also had not planned on buying a loom and I knew nothing more than what I had been watching there in the convention center. What I did not know yet was the price - and as I tend to be a skeptic so I was not letting myself get too carried away until I heard what this loom would cost. The presentation was over. People asked questions. The woman doing the program handed out a flyer about the loom - with a show special price listed. The 32" loom with the stand and the carry bag was just slightly over $500. This was the "show special price" - the presenter said that the price was special and only for the show and that their shop - which is a distributor for these looms - had to get permission from Kromski to offer a discount on the package. Individually the loom, stand, and bag were regular price - which all together was about $50 more. I was to learn later that none of the companies that make these looms want them discounted and that the price of looms is the same from one retailer to another. It was a lot of money - at least for us. I am not sure what I expected the price to be. Less, I guess. But then as I say, the looms that I have known about were much more than this. My wife could see what was going through my head. She said, "You rally want this. I can tell." Yeah, but I am a realist and know what we can afford and what I will spend on the spur of the moment. This was a big purchase. The presentation was over and the next presentation was coming in. We walked out of the program area and I wanted to head over to the booth with the looms to see it up close.

We went over - the funny thing is that we had been in this booth earlier asking about something unrelated to any loom and I had not even noticed the looms on display. The loom from the presentation was back and I went over to look at it up close. One of the people working in the booth came over and I explained that we had just watched the presentation. I asked if the loom was heavy and I was permitted to find out for myself. It was not heavy at all. It could be easily moved if needed. I could see close up just how big ti was and in the back of my head I was figuring out where it would fit to use it. Looking back, the places that I thought it would fit were spots where it would just fit but not where it eventually would go to be used which is our living room - or should I say, living room/weaving studio. The booth was from a shop that is located in a part of Pennsylvania that we travel to often - Lancaster County. We took their card. We had the show papers about the loom and we went off to see the rest of the quilt show. That day I managed to come back to be around that booth and watch people looking at the looms, see how many she had left for sale, and every so often going back again for a close look. I really was hooked. I wanted that loom so badly.

We discussed it. The difference in price was significant if we waited but it would be best if we waited - allow me to really decide if I really wanted this, that I would use it, and what I would do with what I made. (We have been selling handcraft that both of us make for many years - this would be another craft that I would get involved in. I have to say that what I start I make sure I learn and do well and my mind was going around what I would weave and how much such could sell for. At least this was justifying the cost of the loom in my head.) Also I would be able to do some research about this loom and others, prices, and also figure out where this kind of money would come from. When we walked out of the convention center that evening I felt a bit sad that I was not leaving with one of those looms. As we drove home later that night the loom was still in my head.

This was September. In November I still wanted that loom. I had looked up various looms and this loom was around the price range of the others. I like to buy what I have seen in person and not what I have seen just in photos on a website. I looked to see who sells looms like this and came down to no one near enough to go and shop around. From what I could learn, this was a good loom. Around November my wife told me that if we waited until after the beginning of December we could layout the money to buy the loom, stand, and carry bag. From my research I learned that Kromski makes "warping sticks" which are helpful when "warping" the loom. (We have not talked about warping yet.) I would add those to the purchase - just another $25 more, oh boy...  I wanted the loom and I am always looking for a good excuse to make a day trip to PA so we set a day in December when the shop would be open late - just in case we got caught in traffic from two states away - and go and buy the loom. The loom would be a gift from Santa - though Santa was not paying for it.

Also during this time I joined a Facebook group called "Weaving" and found out that there were other rigid heddle weavers on that general weaving group. I had not thought to look for specific rigid heddle groups - there are there - and we will talk about all of that in another article.

I contacted the shop two weeks in advance to make sure that they had the loom, etc. in stock. They had and they would hold one aside for me. We started out early the day we went for it in nice weather (I had been concerned that it would snow which would prevent us from making the trip)  and got to the shop just before noon. We went into the shop and were greeted like old friends. The loom usually comes  not assembled but the shop assembled the loom for me - and brought out the loom folded in the carry bag with the stand, not assembled, in the bag and in the straps there for it on the outside of the bag as well. They made sure all of the parts were in the bag including the hex key needed to assemble the stand, along with all of the accessories, the instructions, etc. They had a packet of the warping sticks on the side and we put them also in the bag.  It was all there. I paid,smiled and carried the loom to our small car and put it in the back. Nice! It was mine!

The Kromski comes with everything that you need to start weaving except yarn. One of the things needed when weaving in general is a "warping board". This is a frame with a series of pegs on which you wrap yarn around to measure it out to the total length that you will need for the warp (vertical yarn on the loom). Usually this is something that is an additional purchase. The Kromski looms have this built into the bottom of the loom. Turn the loom over and you have a warping board when you add the included pegs. Another plus for the Kromski loom. A direct warping peg and clamp is also included. A direct warping peg is another way to measure and prepare the yarn that will be warped using the loom itself and this single peg. Also included is a "sley hook" which is what you use to thread the yarn trough the slots and holes in the heddle. The new Kromski's have a hook that has a  heavy wire threader built into the handle which is also useful when threading the warp. The Kromski also includes two stick shuttles the width of the loom and also a pick up stick the width of the loom. We will get to all of these as we go along. There are also clamps that attach to the loom and a table if you are not using the stand - or don't get a stand - and will use the loom on a table instead.

Aside - don't get a 32" loom without a stand. It is much too awkward on a table. The stand is well worth the price for ease of use and convenience.

The Kromski loom comes with an 8 dent heddle. This size heddle is good to weave #4 worsted weight yarn or thinner. Kromski makes heddles in 5 dent, 8 dent, 10 dent, and 12 dent. The higher the number the thinner the yarn (smaller slots and holes). Worsted weight #4 yarn is a common knitting size yarn. We will talk about dent as we go along.

So I had it all. Now all I had to do was wait until Santa came to bring me the loom!

Now, just in case you think that this site is going to be one long advertisement for Kromski looms, let me be clear that this was only the loom that I saw and decided that I wanted. There are other rigid heddle looms made by other companies. All weave in the same way. Preference for loom brands is very much like preference for anything else. Some like Chevys, some like Fords, and some like Hondas. Just like looms, preference is a personal choice.  I have heard great things about other company's loom as I have heard great things about my loom - and I have also heard negatives about each of them. Be assured that what you will learn on this site can be applied to just about every other rigid heddle loom, no matter the size of the loom or who made it.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome! I am going to share on this site my journey in learning how to weave on a rigid heddle loom. I have been weaving on this loom for a year now. I have a Kromski 32" Rigid Heddle loom with stand. Kromski is the name of the manufacturer and this loom is made in Poland.  Over this past year I have taught myself how to weave on this loom and I still have a long way to go to learn all of the techniques and variations of weaving on this loom. All rigid heddle looms are basically the same - and weaving on one is really no different than weaving on any other rigid heddle (or RH) loom no matter the manufacturer. As you read this site you will have the benefit of learning what I have learned. You will hear about what to do - and what not to do - as well as resolving some of the minor problems that can arise for someone new to weaving starting out with a rigid heddle loom. What I am not going to do on this site is teach you step by step how to weave. There are some excellent books to teach you this and will do so much better than I. There are also some excellent videos that do this - some free and some you have to purchase or have a paid subscription to see. There are many free ones that help a great deal. As we go along I will share the books and videos that I find are most helpful. There are things that the books will only mention and there are things that the books don't go into at all. These are many and these are the things that over this past year I have had to find the answers to and get help with - and these things I will share with you. Think of this site as a supplemental resource.

I should share first just what a rigid heddle loom is. All looms have a heddle of one type or another. The heddle is what holds the yarn or thread that runs vertically on the loom from back to front. These threads pass through slots and holes in the heddle. The heddle makes it possible for the threads (or yarn) to open and close - each set - those in slots and those in holes - going up or down. Opening the threads creates an open which you will pass a shuttle through to bring more yarn (or thread) from one side to the other horizontally across the loom. This is the process of weaving. Alternating which set of threads goes up or down and passing that shuttle through back and forth each time "weaves" all of the yarn (or threads) together. This is the process of creating cloth from yarn or thread. All cloth is made this way - whether on a hand operated loom or a machine loom. The rigid heddle loom uses a one piece solid heddle. This heddle has both slots and holes - generally made of a plastic or composite. Traditional looms often use strings to create these slots and holes. Others use wires to do this. Traditional weaving looms have multiple "shafts" or sets of heddles that can go up and down independently from each other controlled by pedals or handles. The basic rigid heddle loom has one heddle. (Some rigid heddle manufacturers include or offer as an option, a way to use a second or even a third rigid heddle on the loom which make more complex weaving patterns possible and also allow the loom to weave wider than the length of the loom or a tube.)

So a rigid heddle loom is a loom with from one to three solidly constructed heddles. There are several manufacturers around the world that make and sell rigid heddle looms. The three most popular are Kromski, Schacht, and Ashford (listed in no particular order). All three companies have websites that will show you the various looms each makes in various sizes.

Introductions can be boring! My buying my loom is a story in itself and in two weeks you will read about that. I will have a new article every two weeks on Mondays at about 5:00 pm Eastern time.  I have a whole year of things to share so much of this will be written well in advance of its publication date and after that new experiences will keep this site going.

If you give this site a chance to get started you will see that it will be fun. I write to entertain as well as inform and I have written a great deal in my life - some of which has brought more than a few smiles.

I am looking forward to sharing all with you and I hope that you will come back every two weeks to travel this journey with me.

Oh yes, allow me to introduce you to my loom -