Tutorials

Targeted wedging for better tension

In an ideal world we would have perfect tension every time we warp our looms, but that is just not realistic!

There are many challenges to achieving great warp tension, but the good news is that practice helps a lot and this is something you will improve on over time.

But, even for the seasoned weaver, there can be the occasional curve ball just to keep us humble 😆 For me, that was a recent double width project on my rigid heddle loom.

*This post contains affiliate links. For further information, see my disclosure policy.

I warped independently, which is do-able but not 100% ideal when you’re using thicker threads and those threads are doubled. When I started weaving, I found that my tension was firmer in the middle than on either side.

This began interfering with the “cleanness” of my sheds, meaning that not all my warp threads were settling into position well when I changes sheds. And for double width weaving, that can be a huge headache!

I’ve covered wedging before, as you can see in this video:

But I also wanted to get a bit more specific about wedging problem areas in your warp. This is very quick and easy to do and can make a big difference to your tension.

I start out by identifying the areas that need help. For me, that was either side of the middle section, towards the edges. If I wedges all the way across the warp at this point, that would also increase the tension in the mid section, where it is not needed.

There are several materials you can use for wedging (like cardboard separators, cut to size) but I chose to use everyday A4 printing paper. I folded the paper to the approximate width of the loose warp section so that the paper had been folded about 4 times. This provided me with a bit of thickness, but not too much.

It may be easiest for you to pop around the back of your loom with the paper to get close to the warp.

Take the paper underneath the entire warp (both heddles are in neutral at this point) and start to wiggle and jam it into place.

Push the paper in towards the back of the loom. You will feel resistance from the threads and this is good, because you are tightening everything up. There is no set amount for how far back the wedge should be pushed, just until you can feel that the threads have increased in tension in that section.

As you weave and advance your warp, your wedges will move out of place and you will need to reposition them at each advance. This is actually a good thing, because it ensures that your looser threads are constantly being re-tensioned!

If you would like to see the way I place the wedges, please check out this video:

I hope this short tutorial was useful to you! Have you used targeted wedging before? Has it made all the difference to your project? Let me know in the comments, I would love to hear from you!

Do you love the look of the project I’m working on in this tutorial? This is from my Plaid Double Width Blanket Ebooklet, which is available now.

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

How to weave little trees on a rigid heddle loom

by Kelly 7 Comments

This is a project I’ve never shared here before but it’s so darn cute, I just know you will love it!

You may have seen some of my overshot style, “branoe” video tutorials on my Youtube channel before. The Snowmen and Reindeer are the most popular.

Well, today’s tutorial follows the exact same technique. You can use this technique on just about any loom, but this tutorial focuses on the rigid heddle loom. If you want to read more about this overshot technique, I’ve written the details for how it works in this post.

*This post contains affiliate links. For further information, please see my disclosure policy.

Here is what you will need to weave your own little trees in pots:

A rigid heddle loom (I used my 24″ but a Sampleit size is fine if you just want a small sample)

7.5 dent reed

A pick up stick wider than the width of your woven piece

Yarns-

There are no set yarns for this project, but I will share what worked well for me:

For the warp I used a light worsted/dk weight (Australian 8 ply) wool in white.

For the weft I used the same wool in a variety of colours. You will need one colour for your pots, brown for the trunk, green for the leaves, and then orange, red or yellow for the fruit (depending on whether you want orange, apple or lemon trees!)

I’m not including specific calculations or measurements for the piece, as this is adjustable and depends on what you’re weaving, but to give you a guide, my sampler was around 8″ width on the loom. It can be a good idea to wind on a 35 – 40″ warp and experiment with my other branoe/overshot tutorials.

You simply warp up and tie on as you would for plain weave. Then you’re ready to pick up.

You can find the pick up sequence PDF here:

Little-Trees-pick-up-sequence Download

Unlike other pick up, we leave the heddle in NEUTRAL and pick up the warp threads IN FRONT of the heddle.

You can begin by weaving some plain weave to support your pick up design and give contrast. There are nice little borders you can work as well, if you want to. The border that I have here in pink is just 4 up, 4 down but there are many variations you could do.

When you’re ready to begin weaving your pattern sequence, make sure you follow the pick up outlined in the PDF provided, starting with Row 1. Heddle in neutral, pick up in front of the heddle. Once all the threads are picked up across the warp, slide your pick up stick towards the heddle and place it on edge.

Your picked up threads will be propped up, changing the interlacement from plain weave. You can then bring in your pattern weft (whichever colour you’re using for the pots as designs are worked from the bottom up). I’m using a blue wool for my pots.

When your weft reaches the other side, take it around the edge warp thread and back into the shed, doubling your weft.

Take your pick up stick out of position and beat the doubled weft into place.

Follow this up with a plain weave pick in your background weft. Choose the plain weave shed (either up or down) that you were up to before you wove your first pattern pick. For me, that was the up position.

Each plain weave pick will be a single, not double weft.

Continue following the pick up and weaving sequence for the pots.

We follow up now with 6 picks of background weft in plain weave. This is because we need a surface to embroider the trunks onto. Weaving narrow trunks (and centering them to match the pots!) is quite difficult, so embroidering whilst the piece is on the loom is a much easier option.

Rather than embroidering right now, we instead move on to the pick up for the tree foliage.

That way, we have sturdy fabric to embroider onto and we can line up the trunks really nicely with the other design elements. So, we move onto step 6 of your pick up instructions.

Continue following the sequence to form the tree foliage. The pattern weft for the foliage is also doubled. Don’t forget to weave a plain weave pick in between every pattern pick. Now we can thread a tapestry needle with some brown wool or embroidery floss to embroider the trunks.

Knot your embroidery yarn to prevent it pulling through the fabric. Come up from the back of the fabric in the middle top of one of the pots, as shown.

Work a straight stitch to the bottom of the foliage. Take the needle down through the fabric and knot it off at the back, burying the tail in the back of the foliage. This prevents your from having super long threads at the back of the work. Knot the end of the yarn again to work the next trunks.

Once all your trunks are done, you can think about embroidering the fruit. I did this by threading up the colour I wanted and working French knots in the foliage – about 3 French knots for each tree.

If you would like to see the video version of this tutorial, including a graph chart for the design, it is available as a part of the Exploring Branoe class, available at the Online Weaving School.

I also have a low cost downloadable PDF ebooklet available. In this resource you will find written instructions for my free video tutorials on Youtube that use the Branoe technique, all collected and outlined for you in one place 😉

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

Soft and Sweet Bread Rolls

by Kelly 2 Comments

Our family just loves fresh, home baked bread.

I bake all the bread for my family, four loaves at a time. That way we have some fresh and some to store in the freezer for the following days.

But there are some days (more often than I care to admit!) when we’ve run out of loaves and I need to do something fast! Those are the days that my rolls make an appearance. They are much quicker to make than bread loaves and I can get them to the table super fast.

These rolls are very similar to how I make my scrolls, but you bake the dough as rolls instead of being rolled up with fillings.

There are many fillings you can serve in the rolls once they are baked. You can serve them warm or allow to completely cool first. Here are some serving ideas:

I posted on Instagram that I was serving bacon and avocado rolls and everybody wanted to know about them!

Bacon and avocado-

Serve the rolls while still warm. Cut open, spread with mayonnaise, mashed avocado, cheese and fried bacon.

With soup-

You can make the rolls “dinner roll” size if desired. Serve warm, spread with butter. This makes a real meal out of your soup and completes it perfectly.

Egg and bacon rolls-

Similar to the avo and bacon, only this time you also fry eggs with your bacon. Serve with or without cheese and mayonnaise.

Ham and salad-

Allow rolls to cool before cutting open. Serve with ham and whatever salad you like, whether it’s some mixed leaves or a coleslaw.

Hamburger or Veggie burger-

These rolls make great hamburger buns! Fry your meat or veggie patty and team with your favourite extras in the roll. Personally, we’re fans of hamburgers “with the lot”! You can make Hawaiian style burger by adding a ring of tinned pineapple.

For afternoon tea-

These are delicious enough to serve with butter and jam or marmalade for an English style afternoon tea.

Grilled cheese-

My kids love it when I do this. Cut the rolls in half. Using a grill, lightly toast both sides of each half. Top the halves with cheese and place back under grill until melted. Delicious for lunch or paired with soup.

Soft and Sweet Bread Rolls

Kelly

Delicously light and soft rolls for any meal

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 30

Rising time 1 20

Servings 9

Equipment

Stand mixer (optional)
Oven

Ingredients

800 grams Bread flour You can do all white flour or a mix. I like to do 200grams wholemeal and 600grams white flour.
1 tbsp Dry active yeast
2 tbsp White sugar or honey
2 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Sunflower oil
2 & 2/3 cup warm water or milk I use milk powder in water

Instructions

Place all dry ingredients in mixer bowl, fitted with a dough hook. Place in a mixing bowl if mixing by hand. Mix lightly to combine.
Combine oil and warm water/milk in a jug. If using honey, add it with the liquids also.
Set the mixer on minimum and gradually pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Keep mixing until well combined, then turn the machine up to number 1 mixing for 5 minutes. If mixing by hand, mix all ingredients until thoroughly combined, then knead for 5 minutes.
Place some oil in the bottom of the bowl to prevent the dough from sticking while rising.
Place a clean towel over the bowl and allow the dough to double in size. The time this takes depends on the room temperature. It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour.
When doubled in size, take the dough out of the bowl and press down to expel air. Cut into roughly 9 equal pieces. If you want larger rolls, make 6 equal pieces. Form the pieces into little rounded ball shapes and pinch underneath to ensure seams are underneath.
Place into greased or non stick baking tray (I like to use non stick baking paper to line it). Place the balls in lines to fit your tray. The balls should touch each other. Cover loosely with the towel once more.
Preheat oven to 220 degrees celsius (428F) conventional or 200 (392F) fan forced. Allow the rolls to rise for around 15 – 20 minutes.
Bake in oven for 20-30 minutes (this will vary according to your oven) or until nicely browned.
Remove from oven and place rolls on a cooling rack.

Keyword baking, bread, bread roll

Would you prefer to see this post in video format? Let me know in the comments if you do, and I’ll see what I can come up with 😉

If you are interested in baking your own bread, check out these resources:

Milk and Honey Bread

Whole Wheat No Knead Bread Recipe

Zucchini Bread Recipe

Easy Flat Bread Recipe

Cheese and Bacon Scrolls

I hope this recipe blesses you and that you love these yummy rolls as much as our family!

Surface embroidery on weft floats

by Kelly 12 Comments

Embroidery was one of my first crafty loves and I still have a very soft spot for this beautiful art.

When my children were young I was very immersed in the world of embroidery. I loved it for several reasons:

It costs next to nothing to get started, and at that time of life we had no extra money!
It is incredibly portable and you don’t need a specific space to set up.
I could easily pick it up and put it down, very important when you have little kids around.
There are many styles of embroidery to explore.
With a bit of practice, you can improve very quickly (like some other fibre arts I may have mentioned previously, wink wink 😉)

Besides the fact that that weaving kind of took over my life, I’ve also not spent much time doing embroidery in recent years due to the deterioration of my eyesight. I definitely took that for granted when I was younger and even though I now have reading glasses to wear, the clarity is not the same.

Like many of the arts and crafts I’ve enjoyed over my life, I’ve found that embroidery can be married beautifully with weaving, and in many different ways.

One example is my bread towel project from a couple of years ago. I wove the towels and then embroidered some “bread themed” text on them.

But if you feel that you can’t embroider a straight line to save yourself, that doesn’t mean you have to strike embroidery off your list completely.

One time I was experimenting with some weft floats on my rigid heddle loom and thought to myself “these look nice, but if feels like something is missing” 🤔 I felt that I needed to introduce some more colour, and I just happened to have some lovely hand dyed rainbow yarn handy. A little while later, I had some gorgeous diamond shapes happening!

This technique is a surface embroidery, meaning that unlike the usual needle in and out from front through to back of the fabric, the embroidery yarn sits on top of the fabric and is incorporated by “tie downs” or anchors.

Today, I would love to show you how you can achieve this patterning with just a tapestry needle and some contrasting yarn.

Firstly, you will need to work some weft floats. These form the basis for your embroidery thread and gives it a path to travel. The weft float sequencing that I’m using for this tutorial is detailed in this video:

Start by threading your tapestry needle with a good, long length of your embroidery thread. You don’t need to specifically use embroidery floss (though that certainly looks lovely!) I used some light worsted/dk weight wool that was hand dyed and my warp was the same weight of wool, commercially dyed. I think ribbon would look lovely too.

Knot the end of your yarn so it doesn’t pull through. Starting on the first horizontal row of weft floats,(the second row of floats from a vertical perspective) bring your needle through from the back, at the bottom right hand corner of the pair of floats.

Now, take the needle underneath the float pair but not into the fabric itself. Pull the yarn through.

Now take the needle to the pair of floats on the right, they are in a diagonal position from where we just were. Take the needle underneath this pair and pull through.

Now take the needle to the pair on the left diagonal, go underneath the floats and pull through. Starting to see a simple pattern here? We’re basically zig zagging the embroidery yarn back and forth between the weft floats. Pretty simple, huh? 😉

When you get to the top of the row and have no more weft floats to go to diagonally, take the needle down through the fabric to the back. Do this just underneath the top of the last floats you went through, so that it’s not visible. This is to help anchor and secure the row of stitching you’ve just completed.

At the top of the next vertical row of weft floats, bring your needle up through the fabric from the back. The needle should be positioned to the top right of the pair of floats, as shown in the photo above.

Instead of travelling upwards through the weft floats, the time we’re travelling down the vertical row. Take the needle underneath the top floats and pull through.

You may start to guess what comes next. Take the needle underneath the weft floats to the right, on the diagonal. Pull the yarn through. Continue in this fashion, zigzagging downwards until you reach the bottom. Remember to take the needle down through the fabric each time your finish a row, in order to anchor the thread and prepare for the next row.

Once you’ve practiced a couple of rows, you can speed up the process by taking the needle under 2 pairs at the same time. This makes it go much faster and is a natural progression from embroidering under one pair.

There are further variations on this theme that are possible. Experiment and see what you can come up with!

Would you like a free video tutorial so that you can see this surface embroidery in action? I already have that covered, check out my video on Youtube:

Don’t forget to like and subscribe, thank you!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Let me know if you love this technique and intend to give it a try by leaving a comment below, I love to hear from you.

Other resources you may be interested in:

Troubleshooting loose slot threads

All about finger controlled techniques

Weave neat edges on the rigid heddle loom

How to weave clasped weft

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

Photography for Weavers

by Kelly 8 Comments

You spend countless hours warping, weaving and finishing your unique hand woven pieces. It only seems right that you honour that process with some photos that show how beautiful your finished products really are.

Whether you want to take photos to share on social media, with friends and family or whether you sell your weaving online and want to present your pieces in their best possible light, it is well worth taking a bit of time to learn a few basic photographic principles that will help you level up with your photos.

*This post contains affiliate links. For further information, please see my disclosure policy.

The good news is that, these days you don’t need a super duper fancy camera to take good photos. I do use my DSLR camera when I want to take photographs for classes and my patterns, however for everyday use and social media, I always use my phone.

Phone cameras are now way more advanced than they used to be and can make your “photo to platform” experience really quick and seamless. Considering most of us possess a fairly modern phone, (though at nearly 5 years old, I’m not sure my phone could be considered modern any more!) it makes sense to be familiar with your phone camera and make the most of it.

I’ll start with what I consider 3 essentials to taking a good photograph:

Light

Clarity

Composition

We’ll begin with light. If you’re taking photos indoors, try to choose a sunny rather than dark or overcast day. Set up close to a window at a time of day where the sun is not shining directly onto the area you want to photograph. This will avoid too much shadow and the possibility of patches of light and dark.

I often use my studio lights for filming classes but rarely for photography. This is because natural light will always trump artificial, and give lovely tones to your photo without harshness of light and shadow.

Next is clarity. This is so important! No one wants to look at a blurry photo. Hold your phone or camera still or, if this is a challenge for you, use a tripod to unsure stillness. Also, if you have enough light, this greatly decreases the chances of your photo lacking sharpness.

Composition is something you can practice to improve on if it doesn’t come naturally. It’s basically about arranging and framing your “scene” so that it is visually pleasing and balanced. Try out lots of arrangements. Introduce some props to add interest and relevance to your photos eg. lemons with kitchen towels. Try folding, draping, scrunching your hand wovens. Have fun and don’t worry if some of your photos don’t look so great, that’s the point of experimenting – to find out what you like.

A word about editing.

Editing is a great photography tool and an excellent way to finish off and give that final polish to your photos. But it should never be relied upon to “fix” a photo. The aim is to get the best photo that can, in camera, so that when it comes to editing time you hardly have any work to do.

Photography for sellers.

If you are selling your hand woven pieces, good photography is really crucial. Remember that your potential customer can’t see and touch the items the way you can. You want to be able to bring them as close to “knowing” the piece as possible. Provide as many photos as you can from different angles. Include close ups with detail as well as distance shots.

Ensure you have an appropriate backdrop. Carpet and tiles are not a good look. If you think about it, if you were buying some beautiful hand woven towels, would you find them as appealing if they were photographed on a bare floor? I use professional vinyl photography backdrops for many of my photos. These are expensive, but well worth the investment if you are taking a lot of product photographs. I bought mine from Oz Backdrops and Props in Australia, but these backdrops are very similar.

If you are interested in learning more about photographing your hand wovens using your phone, check out my 49 minute Photography for Weavers Workshop. In this workshop, I take you through exactly how I set up product photos for my Diamond Stripe Towels and show you other arrangement possibilities to inspire you. I also take you into the free weaving software Canva, and show you how it can be used for basic editing.

Did you enjoy this post? Let me know in the comments below, I would love to hear from you!

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

How to fix a weaving float

by Kelly 14 Comments

A “float” in weaving is a skipped thread or threads.

They usually occur at the back of the fabric and therefore are not noticed until you remove your piece from the loom.

While the discovery of a float can be disappointing for the weaver, thankfully they are fixable without too much trouble.

*This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

I’m using a plain weave sample, as it is the most straightforward to fix and so makes a suitable introduction to a weaver who hasn’t come across floats before. I’m weaving on my Sampleit Rigid Heddle Loom for the purposes of this tutorial, but floats can occur in any type of weaving.

We’re going to look at the three main culprits for a float happening in your weaving:

Loose or inconsistent warp tension
The angle of your shuttle as you enter the shed
Sticky threads

WARP TENSION

I know, I talk all the time about warp tension, but that is because it is SO important on so many levels to the success of your project. In relation to floats, a warp tension that is either too loose or has loose sections is a place for your shed to get messy. If your shed is not well tensioned and clean, that invites the potential for your shuttle to go over or under threads that it is not supposed to.

SHUTTLE ANGLE

This relates pretty closely to my first point about warp tension, because if your shuttle is at a weird angle when it enters the shed, it may either snag on a warp thread or just skip over it entirely, and then you have yourself a float. Again, we want to aim for a clean shed that leaves no guess work about the path your shuttle should be taking.

STICKY YARN

This is a bit of a pet topic for me it seems, but once again, it has a huge impact on the success of your weaving. Sticky yarn will cause all sorts of trouble and floats are definitely one of them. If you want to know more about which yarns have the potential to give you a rather large headache, check out these posts:

Tip for dealing with sticky yarns:

Use a spare pick up stick or shuttle to “clear” each new shed as you open it. This will force any threads that are sticking to one another back into their natural positions.

Now that we know the reasons why you might see floats occurring in your work, let’s get on to how to fix them!

*Note – Any float fixing should be done prior to wet finishing. If you have already wet finished but want to fix some floats, you can, the results just may not be quite as good.

You will need a tapestry needle and a length of your weft yarn. I used a blue colour instead of my weft green, but only to make the tutorial super clear. You should use the exact same yarn in the exact same colour as your weft.

Normally, I would use my favourite tapestry needle, my Clover Bent Tip Needles, but as we are currently packing up our home to move, I couldn’t find them and just used an ordinary tapestry needle.

There is no need to knot the end of your threaded yarn.

Begin by locating the path that your float yarn is travelling, around an inch away from the actual float. You can see that initially the yarn travels on the over/under path of plain weave, and then we have all those skipped threads where the weft strayed off course. We want to replace that section with a weft thread that is on course.

Next, we want to follow or mimic the exact same path that the weft was taking before it strayed off course. Keep your eyes on the correct weft thread and copy it exactly with your needle, right up to where the float begins.

When you run out of needle, pull your yarn through, but leave a tail of a couple of inches hanging out from where you began. Don’t cinch the thread up tightly, just pull it through so that it lays in place.

When you reach the float, push it aside so that you can see and continue following the over/under path based on where you were up to. Was your last thread under a warp thread? Then the next one should travel over – or vice versa. What you are doing now is placing the thread where it should have been in the thread, before the skipped threads happened.

When you reach the end of the float, continue to needle weave for another inch or so. This picture is not the best example of this, as my float was close to the edge of the work. Whatever the case, continue needle weaving past the end of the float, then leave a tail of a couple of inches like you did at the beginning.

When you have repaired all your floats in this fashion, it’s time to wet finish. Do not cut your tails or floats at this point, leave it all just the way it is. Wet finish and dry completely.

When your weaving is completely dry, it’s time to cut the tails. Use a small, sharp pair of scissors and cut close to the fabric, being very careful not to cut the fabric itself! You can also cut the floats at this point, in the same way you cut the tails.

And that’s it, floats are fixed. I left one float in place over at the left edge for comparison.

If you would like to see this tutorial in a step by step video format, please visit my Youtube channel.

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

Can you weave plain weave on krokbragd threading?

by Kelly 9 Comments

My answer to this question is: “Yes… but are you sure you want to?”

There are times when you’re weaving krokbragd and you want to have a little area of just plain colour, whether it’s to break up a busy design or as a border section.

*This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

My wallhanging piece pictured above has some larger bands of solid white at the top and the bottom to act as borders. The top section was also woven in order to fold over and form the sleeve for my quilt hanger.

You might naturally think that for weaving a solid band of colour, you would choose plain weave. If you have your rigid heddle loom set up with a single heddle, heddle rod and pick up stick, plain weave is easy.

Single heddle, heddle rod and pick up stick loom setup

All you have to do to achieve plain weave on this setup is:

Heddle up
Heddle down

However, plain weave is definitely not the best option (in my opinion) and I’m going to tell you why.

Plain weave is a balanced weave

By it’s very nature, the amount of warp showing compared to the amount of weft showing is equal, ie. balanced! Now, consider the very weft faced krokbragd you have been weaving all this time. The weft completely covers the warp so that all you see is the colours of the weft forming patterns. If you suddenly throw a band of plain weave in there, it’s not going to match up so well with the krokbragd.

Compare the band of green plain weave just woven with the rest of the krokbragd underneath. See the problem?

The warp is showing through, and considering we have spent the rest of the piece carefully beating down the weft to cover the warp, the plain weave now sticks out like a sore thumb! If the entire piece was plain weave, it would be desired that the warp is showing through at the same rate as the weft, but not for krokbragd.

Plain weave is a lighter weave structure

It’s not only the visual aspect of the plain weave that is different to the krokbragd either. Weft faced fabrics are generally quite stiff and dense. There is a great difference in texture between the two weave structures on this piece, with the plain weave section being thin and light.

Changing the weave structures changes your edges

This difference in weight of the woven piece affects the fabric in other ways too. Krokbragd has more draw in than plain weave, so suddenly my edges are no longer consistent and look slightly bulgy in the plain weave section.

So, how do we solve this problem?

Thankfully the answer is extremely simple. All you have to do is keep weaving krokbragd!

Just use the solid colour that you want for your band of colour and move through the 3 step krokbragd weaving sequence. Don’t change your colour until you have the desired amount of weaving.

You can now compare the two sections of weaving in green – the part where the warp is showing is the plain weave and the more uniform looking part on top is the krokbragd. Also, because the green krokbragd follows the previous weave structure, it looks much more uniform and “like it belongs” there.

If you want to learn more about weaving krokbragd on your rigid heddle loom, check out my Krokbragd 101 online course.

If you would like to view this blog post in video format, please view here:

I hope you enjoyed this article! Perhaps it gave you some new ideas for krokbragd design? Or perhaps it has inspired you to give krokbragd a try? Let me know in the comments section below!

P.S. Have you seen the share buttons at the top of this post? You can easily share this article to Pinterest, Facebook or via email with one click. The more shares, the more weavers I can help! Thank you!

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

How to weave neat edges on the rigid heddle loom

by Kelly 8 Comments

Nearly a decade ago, I took a leap and uploaded my very first YouTube video: How to Weave Neat Edges on the Rigid Heddle Loom. Using my son’s old camcorder (surprisingly, the footage still holds up!), I shared a simple yet essential weaving tip. My son even stepped in as editor, complete with some charmingly cheesy background music! 😄

*This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

You could say that this is the video that started it all for me. And to be really dramatic, I could say that there would be no Online Weaving School without this first video. Because, regardless of my fears and zero expectations, people actually watched the video. Then they asked for more.

I never did write a blog post to compliment that video, and there are tips and tricks that I want to point out as important, especially for beginner weavers. So here we go, one blog post, coming up!

TIP ONE – TENSION!

I do go on about this a bit, but that is only because it is SO CRUCIAL!! If your warp is either too loose or too tight, you are going to meet with trouble when you start weaving. Let’s look at too loose first.

This is an example of too loose. If you push up underneath the warp or push down on top and it’s like your hands are on a trampoline that has lost it’s zing, you’re too loose. A too loose tension will result in too loose edges, and even if you employ the techniques I discuss in the video, it’s only going to help a certain amount. When your weft travels around the edge warp threads, it naturally wants to draw in that warp thread a little as it travels to the other side.

That is normal and natural as the weft takes it’s path back and forth across the warp. But, it should not be an excessive amount and it should be consistent. I’m going to talk about consistency more in a moment.

One way to know if your warp is way too loose, is your heddle won’t like to stay in position when you place it there. In the up position, it may fall, in the down position it may just hang there. Doesn’t that sound sad?

So, if your edges seem too loose, try advancing your warp a little.

Then there is the opposite problem, your tension is too tight.

An easy way to know if this is your problem is that you have to wrestle with the heddle to get it into the up position. Not good for your poor old warp which my repay you by snapping a thread. Not good for your loom either, which is only designed to hold a certain amount of tension before damage can occur.

When your tension is too tight, you will also get problems at the edges. They may start to curl upwards as you weave the weft and the warp tries to deal with all that tension. This will also cause the dreaded “smile” from your weaving. It sounds like a good thing to have your weaving smile, but trust me, it ain’t smiling because it’s happy! It will be hard to beat, so your fell line could end up uneven. I can always tell a “too tight” warp because the weft at the edges looks unsettled and unhappy. Not consistent and cruisy.

In between “too tight” and “too loose” tension is “inconsistent tension”. I feel that this is even worse than the previous two, because at least they can be remedied easily by adjusting warp tension.

Inconsistent warp tension usually occurs in the warping process. Perhaps you have warped independently, you’ve grabbed the warp with one hand to roll it on, but you haven’t paid enough attention to the middle part of the warp. It then rolls on looser than the rest. What you finish up with when you start warping is a loose middle and too tight edges. Aaaagh! Not fun. At all. And, once again, a sure recipe for whacky edges.

If you have ongoing warp tension issues and find that frustrating, I highly recommend a beginner’s class like my Woe to Go – Beginner Rigid Heddle Weaving.

TIP TWO – WINDING OF YOUR STICK SHUTTLE

The way in which you wind yarn onto your stick shuttle will affect your edges. I like to use a figure 8 to wind my shuttle yarn, as it creates a flow, meaning the yarn feeds off the shuttle without snagging or pulling unnecessarily. This, in turn, means a smoother weave and no sudden catching or pulling in of the edge threads due to yarn getting stuck on the shuttle.

If you need to see the figure 8 method of loading your stick shuttle, you can watch here:

TIP 3 – ANGLE THE WEFT

When you take your weft picks through, you want to ensure that you angle it before beating. If you’re a beginner, a 45 degree angle is good, and for more experienced weavers, around 25 – 30 degrees is fine. Doing this helps with your edges because it gives the weft room to settle into place, rather than being dragged into a tight spot that feels un-natural. And now I’m talking as though the yarn has feelings, but that is what happens to you if you work with it for long enough 😆

TIP 4 – PINCHING TECHNIQUE

I think that maybe, out of all the things I’ve shared with others about weaving, this one may have been the most helpful to the greatest number of people. It really does make that much difference.

Let’s go over the steps to my pinching technique:

I’ve taken the weft through, I’m angling it, and then I’m bringing my pointer finger into the shed to feel the weft as it travels around the edge of the warp thread.

Then, I’m placing my thumb on top so that the weft yarn, along with the warp thread are wedged or “pinched”. This gives me a really good tactile sense of how the weft is behaving at the edge warp. Perhaps it needs tightening up, or perhaps it needs loosening. I place some tension on the weft yarn with the opposite hand to help it settle in.

The last step of the process is to give that weft tail that is sitting up on the right hand side a little tug to help it settle into place before the next pick.

If you practice this technique for a while, you will learn what the yarn is telling you (oops, there I go again!) and how you should proceed.

If you enjoyed this tutorial, you may want to check out the huge variety of classes I have on offer in my Online Weaving School. There are many rigid heddle classes, from beginner to advanced. If you purchase a membership, you also gain access to the private member’s group – a fantastic community of like minded weavers and support team. I hope to see you there!

I have a bunch of other posts and videos on weaving neat edges, as it’s a problem that pops up so often. Isn’t it good to know that there is something you can do about it?

Help! My edges are wonky!

Troubleshooting loose slot threads

Going around the edges

Try this trick for neater edges

Lifeline selvedge technique

Yet another neat edges tutorial

Thank you for visiting, and be sure to leave me a comment down below.

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

Clasped Weft Weaving Step by Step Tutorial

by Kelly 19 Comments

Just when you think you’ve tried everything in weaving, you come across something different, like Clasped Weft.

Clasped weft can be a great “next step” for newer weavers with a few plain weave projects completed and who are ready for something a bit more adventurous.

The cool thing about weaving clasped weft is that, similar to Colour and Weave, most of the work is in using colours to make your weaving look fancy, when in actual fact it is quite simple.

The clasped weft technique uses 2, 3 or 4 interlocking weft colours. Using 2 colours to begin with is the easiest and least complicated approach. If you have done any tapestry, you may already be familiar with the interlocking technique.

*This post contains affiliate links. for more information, see my disclosure policy.

We mainly use a plain weave structure (though clasped weft can actually be used in other structures, such as twill). It is a perfect technique for a rigid heddle loom, because, although it’s simple, it looks special and has big impact.

Before we go through the tutorial steps, let’s look at some (rather poorly drawn, sorry about that!) diagrams to get a clearer idea of how this works. The drawings are over simplified, as I haven’t drawn in the warp and weft interlacement, but I have drawn in the edge warp threads:

Clasped weft with 2 weft colours.

Clasped weft with 3 colours.

Clasped weft with 4 colours.

Now let’s go through the tutorial steps so that you can get clear on how clasped weft is actually woven. Today, we are just focusing on working the two weft colour technique, as I believe this is the best place to begin if you’re not familiar with clasped weft or haven’t attempted it before.

Begin with two contrasting weft yarns of the same weight. I have used one with a dark navy colour and another that is variegated with bright colours. See the tips section below for more on why variegated works perfectly.

My warp and weft yarns were all light worsted/dk/ Australian 8 ply weight. Wool, acrylic or cotton are all fine.

One weft yarn is loaded onto a stick shuttle, in my case this was the dark navy. The other colour is left in a ball or on the cone. My variegated colour was in a skein and so I wound it into a yarn cake with my ball winder.

A yarn cake (also known as a centre pull ball) is particularly good to work with for clasped weft, because it sits nice and flat on the floor and won’t roll away. The yarn also feeds off the yarn cake seamlessly, which makes the whole process that little bit easier. If you have a round ball or a cone, you may want to sit it in a box or basket on the floor to contain it.

Place the ball of yarn on the floor at your left. It doesn’t matter if you place it on the right or left, but for the purpose of this tutorial it’s on the left.

Because the ball (let’s call it the contrast yarn) is on the left, we enter the shed with the stick shuttle on the right. Again, it doesn’t matter whether you are in the up or down shed, but I am beginning in the down shed.

Take your stick shuttle across from the right hand side to the left as though you’re going to weave a regular plain weave pick.

When you get to the left, take your stick shuttle underneath the contrast yarn. An easy way to do this is to pick up the contrast yarn as the stick shuttle exits the shed and place it on top of the shuttle.

On the right hand side (where your shuttle entered), tidy up and prepare your weft yarn at the selvedge as though you’re going to beat the pick in. If you’re not familiar with how to do this, watch my free video on How to Weave Neat Edges. DON’T BEAT.

Take the shuttle straight back into the same shed. Don’t change sheds, and don’t beat! Take the shuttle through, back to the right where you first entered the shed.

As you return the shuttle to the right, you will find that the navy yarn is linked or clasped with the contrast yarn. This means that the contrast yarn is pulled into the shed. Now you get to decide how far you will pull the contrast yarn into the shed. A little? A lot? Your choice, depending on the effect you want to achieve.

Hold both yarns under tension on either side to manipulate where you want the two yarns to go.

When you’re happy with the yarn positioning, beat the picks into place. You will notice that both yarns are now doubled in the shed.

Change to the next shed (in my case I had been working in the down shed, so I go on to change to the up shed).

Continue weaving in the exact same manner in the new shed and repeat until you’ve finished weaving.

Isn’t your head just swimming with all the possibilities of this wonderful technique?

Clasped weft can be extremely planned or extremely random. It looks wonderful both ways and is just so much fun to weave.

Here are a few recommendations for best results:

1. Use contrasting weft colours.

Light and dark will make the weaving pop.

2. Use the same weight yarn for both warp and weft.

You will get better results and avoid the not so pretty lumps and bumps that can occur at interlocking points.

3. Variegated yarn is perfect for this.

For the 2 colour clasped weft technique, a variegated yarn with a contrasting yarn looks really cool! (See photos below and above).

4. Using the same colour as the warp for one of your weft colours works great.

Too much colour can confuse the contrast of the clasped weft lines. In the tutorial, I used the same navy yarn for warp and weft no.1. I then used a contrast yarn for weft no.2.

If you like the look of clasped weft as much as I do, I have some great news for you!

I have 3 free Youtube video tutorials that will teach you each of these techniques. Start with video 1 so that you can practice the technique, before moving on to the others.

Clasped Weft with 2 colours

Clasped Weft with 3 colours

Clasped Weft with 4 colours

I mentioned that the clasped weft technique can also be used for other weave structures. This can create really interesting and impressive special effects. One of my Etsy patterns, The Cityscape Scarf is a perfect example of a clasped weft combined with a twill.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Leave me a comment here or under any of the Youtube videos, I love to hear from you!

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

How to sit correctly at a rigid heddle loom

by Kelly 16 Comments

In my last post, I spoke about my back pain journey and gave all my best hints to help you avoid experiencing pain while weaving on your floor loom.

That post was very popular and many of you asked if I could do something similar for weaving on your rigid heddle loom. A floor loom and a rigid heddle loom are quite different when it comes to seating, and while a lot of the same principles I talked about in my last article regarding posture still apply, I think it’s worth going over the options.

*This post contains affiliate links. For more details, please see my disclosure policy.

I’d like to point out that, even though some of these are not my personal preference, that doesn’t mean that they’re not right for you. And, if you are using a seating arrangement currently that works really well and allows you to weave pain free – don’t change it!

Regular chair-

Some weavers use a regular, straight backed dining chair to weave. This is what I started off with when I began my rigid heddle journey, but it did not suit me at all. I did find it better if I bolstered my lower back by wedging a cushion between my back and the chair when weaving, but it was still not comfortable for me.

Weaving bench–

I would not use a weaving bench or piano stool with my rigid heddle. The length of the stool does not allow me to get right in close to the loom, and there is no back support.

Office chair–

This is what I use and I’m going to go over in more depth why I think it is the best option in a moment.

With a stand-

I do recommend weaving with a stand for loom sizes 24″ and above. This is because the larger/wider the loom, the more difficult it is to prop against a table to weave, and the longer your reach distance will be. A longer reach distance means more stress on your body.

Without a stand-

I don’t use a stand for my Sampleit 10″ loom because it’s so small, light and portable that I can weave on it just about anywhere, it makes a great lap loom. You don’t have to have a stand for your rigid heddle, but I do think it’s really worthwhile investment. If you have or are looking at purchasing a really large loom, such as a 32 or 48″, I would definitely be wanting a stand.

I want to talk now a little more about my office chair and why I think it’s the perfect solution. I was lucky enough to get my chair for free when my husband’s workplace was closing an office and it was barely used!

Height adjustable
Contoured
Back rest adjustable
Tiltable

All of this means that I can sit right in close to my loom and adjust the chair to be as comfortable as I could possibly want to be. My back, shoulders and neck are not stressed because my body is so well positioned.

Because my chair is on wheels, it’s really quick to make minor adjustments to get closer to or further from the loom.

My feet are either flat on the floor or positioned on top of the stand’s stabilising bar, meaning the loom is very stable.

Now, just because we have a super duper chair with nice back support doesn’t mean we can get lazy about posture. Yes, it’s still possible to slouch, bend or tilt your body in ways that will wear on your back over time.

So don’t forget those good posture points – a straight back, level shoulders, elbows resting comfortably on the front beam.

Regular breaks are important, to give your body an opportunity to move about in a different way after being in one position for a while. If you want to read more about posture, breaks and stretching, I recommend you read over this post.

And to see my seating position in action, I’ve made a video for you. The video shows both how I sit with my loom on a stand and how I sit when not using a stand. You can click below to check that out:

I hope this post was helpful to you and gets you thinking about ways you can maximise your weaving time by minimising back, neck and shoulder pain.

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!