A Simple Tip When Warping a Rigid Heddle Loom

My Kromski loom came with something that Kromski calls a "Warp Helper". It is a block of wood with a rectangular slot in the bottom and a hole through the top - for the apron dowel to slide through to hold the dowel while you warp. On my 32" loom the dowel both pulls this block off the edge of the loom that you are supposed to push it down on and the length of the dowel cannot be supported by a single block like this. I tried to make my own similar blocks and none really were very satisfactory. The idea is that the warp dowel needs to be held while the warp is being tied on to it. I have since watched Kromski's video on using this and saw that if one were warping on a warping board and then transfering the yarn to the loom to tie onto the warp beam, the Kromski warp helper will work, but when direct warping - which is so common with a rigid heddle loom - the block does not work well.

So what to do to hold the warp dowel when warping - and then again hold the cloth side dowel when tying on the warp on that side? The answer just came to me one day and it is SO simple that it is just silly that this is not shown all of the time!

I used rubber bands. Not special rubber bands but thick and strong rubber bands. These are the type of rubber bands that the post office uses. And they can be found where stationary is sold - Walmart, Staples, or other office stores or stationary sections in a bag of many for just a few dollars. You will get more rubber bands in that bag than you will ever need. Here in photos I can show you much easier what I am talking about.

You have your apron rod or dowel that you are going to tie your first warp thread on, and take a loop from that thread through your heddle slot to your warping peg and back again - but the dowel is just hanging there. Wouldn't it be easier if it was up and supported in front of you - straight across the back of the loom?  Take a look here -

Here you can see the apron rod for the warp - in the back of the loom. You are looking from the front to the back. See how the rod (what the warp loops around) is sticking straight across - with its cords stretched out behind it connected to the warp beam. Now look to the left of the photo from the end of the heddle back. Wait - here is a close up of that -

See the rubber band? So simple. There is a rubber band on each side of the loom. One end of one rubber band goes around the top of the heddle block and the other end goes around the end of the apron rod (or dowel). Do this on each side. Put the rubber band on, and crank back your apron rod to put some tension on the rubber band. Position the rod where it is comfortable for you to tie and wrap onto it as you warp. Can you believe how simple this is.

Now, once you have all of your warp on the warp apron rod, take the rubber bands off BEFORE you start winding your warp on the warp beam. This is easy to forget - but you will not be happy if you leave those two rubber bands in place. BUT just put them aside, you still need them!


The warp is all set on the warp beam. You have taken one warp out of each slot and put it in the adjacent hole. You are now ready to tie it on the front beam. And you are going to use your rubber bands again. You will do the exact same thing but now on the front dowel.

Take a look -  

It is hard to see but there is a rubber band on both the left and the right sides. Here is a close up of the right side.

With the dowel straight across and being held in place with the rubber bands, start tying your warp on the front beam. Here are close ups of the rubber bands going around the top of the heddle block and dowel end.

Once you start tying your warp bundles on to the dowel and you have enough evenly on both sides of the dowel to support the rod with the warp, you can take the rubber bands off. I have left them on until the end, but I have been finding that they might interfere with getting a good tension before you make your final adjustments of each bundle to get even tension on each. No matter what - you must take these rubber bands OFF BEFORE you start to make your adjustments of tension on each bundle. If you don't you will not have correct tension on your warp to weave with.

You can certainly use each rubber band many times but if you use two that have stretched out unevenly, you will put your dowel at an angle. Just take a look at how far each end of the dowel is from the heddle - the two measurements should be equal. A simple ruler put from the heddle to the dowel on each end will tell you immediately if you need to put these rubber bands aside and take two new ones. Those rubber bands are still good - for the usual uses for rubber bands.

This will work on any Rigid Heddle Loom - as long as there is part of the heddle block sticking up to put the rubber band around.

So you see, two simple rubber bands can make a job that potentially can be frustrating simple and easy!