Spent the day at a friend’s house as we were taught how to warp our looms. It was an excellent, productive day, but pretty tiring, physically – all that stretching and standing over the loom for hours on end. Still, at the end of it, I managed to flick the shuttle through a couple of times and I was so chuffed! Am looking forward to really cracking into this weaving lark.
First came the maths:
- I want an 8″ wide tablerunner, about 40″ long
- My loom is 8 epi (ends per inch)
- 8″ x 8 epi = 64 ends (lengths of thread)
- waste was calculated at Depth of Loom (23″) plus Ties (12″) = 35″
- 40″ + 35″ = length to be wound on warping board
- Wind on yarn to warping board – 64 lengths of 75″. Form a cross between first pegs – this is where the leash sticks will go
- Tie off lengths at various points before removing from warping board. Tie final thread through loops at end of board
- Tie off stacks of 10 threads
- Remove from warping board, chaining as you go (form a circle, reach through, and pull through next handful in a loop
- Insert leash sticks either side of the cross and tie off. One end of the leash sticks will be untied for this, so re-tie them together afterward
- Thread each end through heddles and tie to back stick
- Tie other ends to front stick and over front beam
- On back stick, insert paper over knots and tie over back beam
- Wind on back of loom to tension the warp
- Start weaving!
No doubt this isn’t entirely accurate and I’ll have to come back to it at some point and correct. Maybe when I’ve read a handy-dandy book on using a 4-shaft loom. Hey, there’s an idea…
And here’s some pics of the process:
