How To Weave on a Rigid Heddle Loom – Learning Through Trial and Error
See how to weave on a rigid heddle loom by learning through doing. I make all the first time weaving mistakes so you don’t have to!
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You may have noticed that I am a crafty sort of person. What you may not know, is that I come by it honestly. Everyone in my family to some extent or another has some sort of craft or hobby to keep them busy and learning for years.
For example, my dad is very good at making things with wood. For Christmas this year, he surprised me by making me a rigid heddle loom.
I have been interested in weaving for a while, but hadn’t (yet) invested in a loom. Within a few hours of opening up this gift, I was learning how to weave.
In my haste and my hubris, I made many mistakes. Mistakes that could have easily been avoided my listening to experienced weavers who know better. By making these mistakes right off the bat, I have a better understanding of exactly how big of an impact these seemingly small things can be.
So if the experts aren’t enough to convince you, maybe someone who has no idea what they’re doing can.
My Rigid Heddle Loom
Before we dive into all the ways I set myself up for failure, let’s have a brief overview of my loom.
If you are new to weaving, this will help you understand what I’m talking about later. If you are an experienced weaver, then you can see all the pretty pictures of my beautiful loom.
This loom was built following a plan designed by Clayton Boyer. Functionally, it is very similar to a Schacht Cricket loom.
What makes a heddle loom work is the heddle. It is a simple way to move some threads up and down while the other threads stay stationary so you can quickly make an over/under weaving pattern.
This works by alternating slots and holes. When you move the heddle up, any thread going through a slot will stay still, but the ones going through a hole will move up with the heddle.
When the heddle goes down, the threads through the hole also go down. This up and down movement creates a shed for weaving.
A Few Weaving Terms to Know
- Warp – Threads that run the length of the fabric
- Weft – Threads that run the width of the fabric
- Heddle – A device with alternating slots and holes that allow for weaving by creating sheds
- Dent – How many warp threads per inch fit into a heddle
- Shed – The triangular gap between warp threads as you are weaving
- Shuttle – A tool to run weft threads through the shed
Choosing Some Yarn
As a long time knitter, I have a collection of yarn that I have from various sources. I had several balls of 100% wool of Jojoland brand that I had been gifted. This yarn is 3-ply and each strand shifts color along the yarn, creating interesting color combinations.
Since I had no other plans for this yarn, I had a lot of it, the colors would create an interesting effect, and the yarn seemed strong enough to hold tension while weaving, this seemed like a good yarn to use.
Warping the Loom
Vaguely following instructions from this Ashford Loom video, I quickly got set up for direct warping using a warping peg.
This process when surprisingly quick. You use a continuous length of warp, starting at the back rod of the loom, through the slots of the heddle, and as far away as you’ve set up the peg.
My loom has a set of anchors to hold the loom to the table while you set up the warp. Because of the right angle of these anchors and the curve of my table, the loom started to slip towards the peg as I added more tension with each length of warp. I enlisted the help of my husband to hold down the loom so I could finish warping.
I added as many warp threads as I could before I used up the first ball of yarn. Since this was only a practice weave with no final intention, I didn’t worry about filling up the loom.
Once I had all the warp, I rolled it on to the back beam and pulled half of the warp threads through the holes of the heddle and tied it all on to the front rod, trying my best to keep even tension on all of the warp threads.
After wrapping some more yarn onto a shuttle, I started weaving.
Ready, Set, Weave!
This style of loom is very well designed. At the back of the loom are notches that allow the loom to sit comfortably at the edge of a table and gives the weaver enough resistance to manipulate the yarn easily. I was able to sit comfortably and weave for long stretches of time with the loom simply propped on the edge of my dining room table.
I used the same yarn for the weft that I used for the warp. It was fun to see how the color changed as I went and combined with the different colors in the warp.
Everything started well and I kept weaving with confidence. As I got further and further in I started to notice issues that became glaringly obvious. Even off the loom, it’s pretty obvious I didn’t know what I was doing.
What I Learned
Mind Your Edges
The first problem that I noticed pretty quickly when I started weaving was the edges of the fabric.
Sometimes I would have big loops sticking out, other times I would pull it too tight and it would pull the outer warp in. This was not the straight edge I was trying to make!
With a little trial and error I learned to slow down and really take my time with each row of weft to gently snug it up to the warp, right where I wanted it to be.
This small pause to line everything up rapidly improved my edges. There was a noticeable improvement by the end of my first weaving project.
Tension is Everything!
The second issue that became apparent was the tension on my warp threads was extremely uneven. The warp farthest to the right was tighter than all the rest of my warp and so ended up being so loose they hung down. What went wrong?
In my excitement to get weaving, I ignored the advice from every beginning weaving tutorial I found and wound up my warp without any kind of spacer between the layers of yarn. Skipping this step was a huge mistake!
Without anything to keep the layers of yarn neat, some sections bunched up on top of each other, and some spread out. As I kept weaving and unrolling my warp, some sections were much looser than others, causing uneven tension.
I tried to even out the tension after I had already started weaving, but the damage was done.
If you start weaving, learn from my mistakes! Take your tension seriously and wind your warp carefully!
Different Ways to Fill a Shuttle
When I started weaving I didn’t realize that were different ways to wind yarn onto my shuttle. I took the obvious route and just wound it around the center of the shuttle.
This wasn’t a mistake. I was able to weave just fine with the yarn wrapped like this. After looking at different tutorials I found out that you can use a figure eight pattern to wind the yarn.
For me, switching to a figure eight pattern on one side of the shuttle made my weaving much more comfortable. Having one side of the shuttle free of yarn made putting the shuttle through the shed so much easier for me. The yarn seemed to come off of the shuttle easier at the end of a row with this method as well.
I always encourage anyone trying new skills to try different ways of doing things to see what works best for them.
Wool is Stretchy
Technically, I already knew this, but I forgot about it when I chose the yarn for this project.
Compared to something like cotton or linen, wool has a lot of stretch. When you are trying to keep even tension, this makes the task more difficult. Of course, it is not impossible to weave with wool, but it probably wasn’t the best choice for my first attempt at learning how to weave.
Keep an Even Beat
Looking over the fabric I created once it was off the loom, there are portions where the fabric is very dense and the weft is so close together you can’t see the warp. Other place on the fabric, the ware and the weft are more even and the fabric has more drape.
The difference between these parts is how firmly I was beating the weft threads between passes across the warp.
When I first started I was working super hard to squish all the yarn together so there were no gaps. The longer I spend weaving, the more I realized I didn’t have to do this.
When you are weaving the warp threads are under a lot of tension. When that tension is released, all the threads will pull closer together. You can see this in the difference between the width of the heddle and the width of the final fabric. The fabric will be more narrow than how the threads were spaced.
Depending on what you are making, you may want a denser or a looser fabric. Whichever you are aiming for, you want to be consistent in how you beat your weft to make a consistent fabric.
Trying Again
With all of this new knowledge I started warping for my second weaving attempt.
To make things a bit more interesting, I pulled out some KnitPicks Mighty Stitch yarn that I had in my stash, left over from making baby blankets.
Using colors I thought went well together I created my own plaid by using repeating stripes in the warp and the weft. How much I had of each color determined how thick each stripe was.
Getting Better Already
It is easy to see that I learned a lot about how to weave from my first project that I was able to improve so much by my second project.
This time around I had a better idea of what I was aiming for. From the beginning I was very careful in winding on my warp, so I had much less of a tension issue.
With each row of weft I carefully lined up my edges so the final result is much neater all the way across the fabric. I am also very pleased with how the plaid turned out just by playing around with scrap yarn. I did my best to keep an even beat, which not only made the final fabric feel much nicer, but help showed off the color pattern to the full effect.
The biggest issue I have with this final project is still having loose ends showing at the color transitions. I had hoped that washing the fabric after it came off the loom could help lock everything together, but it didn’t have as much of an effect as I wanted. The hight acrylic content of this yarn probably isn’t helping either.
I will have to research more ways to change colors and secure ends to find a method I like more.
In the end, this make a beautiful scarf that will be soft and warm!
It’s Warp Speed Ahead!
I am having so much fun learning how to weave on this loom and make the fabric that I want. There is so much more to learn and explore and I am a long way away from feeling like a true weaver.
The biggest surprise was how quickly I was able to start weaving with this loom. I made a lot of mistakes with my first weave, but I’ve already learned so much and I feel like my second project was such a vast improvement over my first project.
If there is something you are interested in trying, don’t be afraid to jump right in! Your first try probably won’t be perfect, but you’ll learn what to do differently next time.
If you are interested in weaving but don’t have someone to make you a loom, be sure to check out The Woolery. They are a one stop shop for weaving!
I would also recommend the book Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom by Syne Mitchell. It has been a huge help and source of inspiration.
Have you tried weaving? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below!
If you want to see more yarn adventures, click here.