Weaving on a rigid heddle loom

I know a lot of you are fascinated by the idea of weaving but are unsure about the whole thing and whether you could actually do it yourself. So, I thought I’d share some of my latest project (my second) with you to help de-mistify the process.

First you set up the warp. This involves clamping the loom and the warping peg to a table, tying the ends onto the warp beam, and then around the warping peg.

This is what the warp looks like when it’s all set up. I have used 2 colours for this project, but you can use one colour or many, it’s versatile!

In my mind, the warping is the “hard” part (and not all that hard) and the weaving is the “easy” part (which has it’s own challenges but is repetitive and relaxing). By weaving one inch red and one inch blue for the weft (the horizontal part) I was able to achieve squares (because I had already set up the pattern in warping by using the same 2 colours).

After cutting from the loom and knotting the ends to prevent unravelling (you can also hem stitch the ends) your project is washed, dried and ready! This is a sweet little table cloth for the cubby house which has been a great practice project. Next to come is a mat for the floor, and I may even try some different techniques – the rigid heddle is just full of possibilities!

So, what do you think? Are you interested in weaving? Perhaps you weave already? I’m looking forward to teaching this art form to my girls, I think they’ll love it!