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What tools do I need for rigid heddle weaving?

When you buy a rigid heddle loom, it should come with a few standard tools, which usually include:

*This post contains some affiliate links, which means if you click and buy, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

*A heddle/reed (usually 7.5 or 8 dent)
* A warping peg and clamp for direct warping
* A clamp for holding the loom to a table while warping
* A stick shuttle
* It may include a threading and reed hook
* Cardboard warp separators (may not come with all looms)
** Some looms now come with a double heddle block built in

Apart from the standard tools, there are extra things that are either essential or come in handy.

Other essentials:

*Scissors – sharp scissors will save you a lot of frustration

*Tape measure

*Warp separators (if not received with your loom)

*Yarn

*Inch ruler (for figuring out the sett of your yarn)

*Project journal for recording all your project information

*A big mug of tea (or is that just me?!)

Handy optional extras:

*Tapestry needle
*Extra heddles
*Fringe twister
*Sewing machine
*Serger
*Loom stand
*Tapestry beater, comb or household fork
* “S” hooks or other weights
*Calculator
*Instructional books (the Book Depository (affiliate link) has a huge range of great weaving books and this post will help you to determine which book/s might be right for you).
*Online lessons are an awesome tool to get started. You can check out my Youtube channel and my Online Weaving School for further help.

This post is a companion post to this Youtube video, so pop over and watch if you want to see the tools and hear my explanations.

Something to remember when you’re just starting out with rigid heddle weaving is that you don’t need All.The.Things right away! The tools that come with a newly purchased loom are sufficient to get you started, and you can gradually build from there.

If you have any questions, don’t be shy, leave me a comment below.

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

New Krokbragd Bag Class!

by Kelly 9 Comments

My brand new class is finished and available! When designing this bag, my plan was bold colour and design. I think I can safely say that I achieved that!

I used a contrast of deep, navy blue and a middle panel of bright colours and bold patterning to really set off the feature panel.

Originally I had a totally different design, but when I started weaving, found that it was a little more drab on the loom than it had been in my head. So, I whipped out the Sampleit, threw on a short warp and started experimenting with the colour palette I had chosen for the bag.

I was much happier with what I came up with on the small loom and although not all of this design made it into the bag class, I’m really happy with the finished bag – plus I have plenty of other designs up my sleeve for another time.

The idea for the bag actually came to my last year, when I was playing around with this sample below. It’s not until recently that I actually got around to making the class.

The project uses two heddles and provides two different methods for threading, according to your preference. Full sewing and finishing instructions are also included in the class.

The bag pairs perfectly with my Krokbragd Mug Rug Weave Along that ran recently, so definitely start with the mug rugs if you’re hesitant about giving this a go.

And, if you just want to find out more about Krokbragd, I have written this post which gives you more information, plus links to my Youtube videos on the topic.

I hope you can join me for this one, Krokbragd is so much fun, so rewarding and for me, is a weave with a total WOW factor!

Great rigid heddle weaving books!

by Kelly 10 Comments

My last post detailed some of my favourite books for 4 shafts or more, but today I’d like to talk about some great rigid heddle books.

I already have a video on this topic, but I know some people prefer to read rather than watch, plus I’ve added some extra books to the original list, so here we go!

*This post contains affiliate links.

I’ll start with my favourite and most used book, in fact, this is the first rigid heddle weaving book I bought.

The Weaver’s Idea Book by Jane Patrick This book has so much content and is great for beginners. It allows you to start with the basics and build as you go. Just about everything you need to know initially is contained within these pages and I think of it a little like a training ground for new weavers. It is also hardcover with spiral binding, making it easy to lay flat and view while you’re weaving. Highly recommended!

Weaving made Easy by Liz Gipson. A lovely little book that includes information on loom set up. The projects are simple enough for beginners and interesting enough for all weavers.

Woven to Wear by Marilyn Murphy. I also read this book as a newer weaver and loved how it stirred my imagination. It contains simple garments with lots of plain weave, making it great for beginners, particularly those wanting to get a taste for sewing with your handwoven. The sewing projects are simple rather than finicky, with the use of large shapes instead of small pieces.

Inventive Weaving on a Little Loom by Syne Mitchell This book is awesome value for beginners to intermediate with lots of ideas. For the newer weaver, there is practical information and plenty of inspiration for once you have the basics down. I think of this book as one that you may not fully appreciate until you have some more weaving experience, perhaps a book that will grow with you through your weaving journey. Towards the middle and later part of the book are projects and ideas that may be too challenging for a new weaver, but that an enthusiastic and curious weaver will definitely want to make use of later on. There is a lot of information, it is attractively set out and a joy to flip through.

Weave, Knit, Wear by Judith Shangold This book is responsible for opening my eyes and quickening my heart over the range of possibilities with a rigid heddle loom and garment making. Judith uses mostly plain weave, colour and design to make fabric look special. She includes design layouts and illustrations to help you wrap your head around how garments can be constructed. What I really love about this book is the fusion of weaving, knitting and crochet added in. It really has encouraged me to think outside the square and maximise my rigid heddle loom.

Simple Woven Garments by Sara Goldberg Another really great book on making simple garments with simple, colourful, hand woven cloth. There are more than 20 projects and they are all wearable! There are also details on adjusting garments to your own specifications.

I had to come back and edit this post to include Debby Greenlaw’s new book Krokbragd: How to Design and Weave. I actually like this book so much that I wrote a review for it here, so pop over and read that if it sounds like a book you would be interested in.

To see all my book recommendations is one easy to access place, visit my Amazon Shop.

If you would like to watch this post in video format please click on the video below.

I hope you enjoyed my list!

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

Kelly’s hand woven, perfectly hemmed technique.

by Kelly 21 Comments

*This post contains affiliate links

I won’t tell you how long these towels have been sitting on my creative table waiting to be hemmed. What is it with final techniques and me? I go to all that trouble to weave something beautiful and then let it sit there for who knows how long before I get around to hemming!

Anyway, lets focus on the positives. The towels ARE hemmed now, and I’m going to share my simple but effective hemming techniques with you!

Firstly, always weave a little extra where you intend to hem, and don’t forget to factor in hemming allowances to your overall calculations. I like to make a little contrast weave at the beginning and end of a piece that I’m going to hem. Here I’ve woven plain weave borders at either end. There are 2 advantage to this –

1. The contrast looks nice.

2. The border is less bulky and therefore makes a more crisp and pleasing hem.

You can see that my raw edge is secured on a serger to prevent any unravelling during the wet finishing process. It is helpful to give the whole woven piece a good press before beginning, it’s always easier to work with pressed fabric.

This is what I call my “dog ear” technique. Fold in a corner on each side of the hem and press down with an iron. There are 2 reasons for this also –

1. The corners can get ugly and a bit ragged in the washing process – I want to hide them!

2. Towels have a tendency to be wider at each end. This reduces a little of that “flared out” look.

Once my dog ears are pressed down neatly, I take the raw edge and fold it over, usually around 1/4″ but more if it’s particularly raggy. Press with the iron.

Now I fold again, this time 1/2″ or more and press. Now all raw edges and corners should be completely encased and hidden. Once pressed, you can also place pins along to hold everything in place if you wish.

Take it to the sewing machine (different towel in this photo but the same process). I use Gutermann sewing thread. I learned early in my sewing journey that life is too short to sew with cheap threads that will break over and over! Sew with a straight, medium stitch close to the folded edge (roughly 1/4 – 1/8″).

You can use a different stitch if you want to, I just like the professional looking finish a medium straight stitch gives. Don’t forget to reverse stitch at the start and finish.

For an almost invisible finish, you can hand hem with a needle and thread, you can find that tutorial here.

Seeing as we’re on the subject of towels, if you’re on the hunt for your next towel project, you may want to try one of my classes or patterns.

Online class:

Happy Fibonnaci Towels

Diamond Stripe Towel Weave Along (currently only open to members of the Online Weaving School)

PDF Patterns:

Lux Hand Towels

Happy Fibonnaci Towels

Diamond Stripe Towels

Drop me a comment to let me know if this post has been helpful to you, I love feedback!

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

Baby Blanket Project

by Kelly 6 Comments

I finished my baby blanket just in the nick of time, the day after my gorgeous new nephew was born. I already knew the baby was a boy and chose the colours accordingly.

I told Nicky from Thread Collective what I wanted to weave and she recommended Venne Organic 8/2 cotton. I’m so glad I went with it, it may be a little more expensive, but for good reason! It is soft but I didn’t have a single broken warp thread, it was strong and just lovely to weave with.

*This post contains an affiliate link. Please see my disclosure policy for further information.

I warped with the royal blue. I’m not sure why, but I started discovering errors from this point on. Too many distractions perhaps?

Error 1: I missed a part of the threading sequence in one spot.

The fix: I had missed threading 3 heddles, so I made the missing heddles out of tapestry cotton and inserted them in place. Then, I measured out the missing warp threads, threaded through my string heddles, and weighted them over the back of the loom. Not ideal, but it worked!

The weighted threads.

Error 2: I re-sleyed the reed 3 times (yes, 3!!) because I kept missing a slot or doubling up. This was really frustrating as I just wanted to get weaving at this point. Even after the 3 re-sleys, I still ended up with one slot doubled up with threads. So, the blanket has a fault running through vertically. Rather than go back and re-sley again, I decided to just live with it!

My idea for weaving was to experiment with the weft, initially I thought I would do one shot of turquoise and one of green. I didn’t like the way that looked though. I experimented further (this is why it’s always great to warp a little extra for sampling) and decided on 3.5 inch stripes of blue, alternating with 1 inch stripes of green. It has a nice balance.

Here you can really see the hearts, aren’t they cute?! This is one side.

And this is the other side. Originally I had planned to back the blanket with flannelette once it was off the loom, but in the end I couldn’t decide which side of blanket I liked better, so no backing. It will be a light blanket instead 🙂

You can find a copy of this draft here. It is also pinned to my Weaving board on Pinterest.

The weaving draft is very easy to follow, both the threading and treadling follow repetitive, simple to memorise sequences.

The dimensions of the finished blanket are:

Width – 27.5″

Length- 44″

The approximate cost of the project:

I used almost a whole 250 gram cone for warp. For the weft, I alternated between the turquoise and green cones, using less of the green. I estimated the total cost at around $55AUD, which covers the threads, postage cost on the threads, sewing supplies and label.

What I learned:

*I don’t work well with deadlines. On one hand, needing to be finished by a certain date is a good motivating factor but on the other hand, rushing causes stress and mistakes.

*I learned that I definitely want to work with Venne organic cotton again.

*I would also like to use this draft again and I think it could be adapted to all sorts of projects.

*I already knew this, but this project reminded me that weaving with quality threads is expensive!

*Perhaps most importantly, I learned that, once again most mistakes or errors in weaving are totally fixable if you can just find or think of a work around.

If you are interested in floor loom weaving or are a newbie floor or table loom weaver, be sure to check out my Introduction to Floor Loom Weaving course to get you up and weaving!

This pattern draft is not from a book, but if you love to weave baby blanket’s, I recommend

Hand Woven Baby Blankets by Tom Knisely.

There is a huge selection of blankets, from 2 to 8 shafts and many different yarns and colours. It’s a lovely and inspiring book.

Hug Me Cardigan – new pattern!

by Kelly Leave a Comment

My new pattern is inspired by the classic “hug me tight” shrugs I used to see some of my elderly clients knitting for their loved ones when I worked in nursing homes.

This cardigan was designed to be a simple but beautiful garment – perfect for those who are just starting out sewing with their weaving. It is also a “no cut” pattern for those who may be nervous about cutting their cloth for the first time.

I love the way my hand dyed yarn turned out – quite different to what I expected but very much in the style I love.

Woven with wool and designed to be a light fabric, it is a perfect garment for transitional weather because it’s warm without being too warm.

Check out my Etsy shop to find out more about the pattern.

Happy Weaving!

Slouchy satchel bag – new lessons

by Kelly 1 Comment

Remember that gorgeous looking warp from my last post? This is the result! The whole project was woven on the rigid heddle loom with two heddles but different techniques. The bag was woven as a tube so it’s completely seamless, and the strap was woven as double weave, providing a firm and sturdy fabric.

A lot of people have commented on the yarn, and rightly so, it is wonderful. It’s called Bloom and is available from Bendigo Woollen Mills.

If you’re interested in weaving your own bag, the lessons are available on my Weaving Lessons channel and include all the instructions you will need from materials, warping, sewing and finishing.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Knitted kitty

by Kelly 4 Comments

Isn’t it funny how you can put a project aside for a while and it becomes difficult to pick it up again? I started this kitty last year, got the head and body finished and then just didn’t feel like picking it up again.

Over Christmas the weather was very warm and I was very tired. The whole family was tired. So we spent quite a bit of time watching movies and documentaries together and keeping things quiet. I get restless hands if I just sit and watch something, so it was the perfect time to pick up a bit of knitting.

It didn’t take me long to power through the rest of the pieces, and when she was finished I felt she needed a dress, so got straight onto the sewing machine, no pattern, no fussing around (no excuses!) and whipped up the dress in no time.

She’s pretty cute without the dress too 🙂

She was promptly gifted to my 8 year old because she is the only one who doesn’t have a knitted toy from me yet. They now share the same bed and kitty is never far away, yes, she loves her!

Now for the pattern details – Girl Cat by Little Cotton Rabbits. If you are not too confident with knitting, these patterns are really great, step by step, lots of photos, very well written. Most of the patterns come with instructions for knitted clothes and the designer has plenty of other gorgeous little animals to choose from.

Cutting handwoven cloth, one method

by Kelly 3 Comments

*This post contains affiliate links

Cutting a length of cloth of the loom is so exciting! But then what? If you’re not leaving a fringe you have to finish the fabric somehow, and if you’re cutting into it you may be afraid of unravelling. This is a great, easy method to use for either finishing to hem or if you need to cut into the fabric.

Firstly, once off the loom, the fabric needs to be wet finished and dried before you consider cutting.

When you’ve determined your cutting line (whether it’s at the end of the fabric or somewhere else) cut a length of light, fusible interfacing the length of the cut and about 2 inches in width. It must be the fusible type or this won’t work. Iron it so that your cutting line is roughly in the middle (so you have half of the interfacing on either side of the cut line). For me, the cut line was where the end of the woven fabric met the beginning of the fringe. Cover with a pressing cloth and iron until fused.

The underside of the fabric now looks like this, nothing is really visible from the front side.

Using your cutting line as a guide, serge right across. Can you see where the fringe begins and woven cloth ends? That was my guideline for serging. If you don’t have a serger, a zigzag stitch on the sewing machine will suffice, but the serger definitely does a superior job. Janome is a reliable brand if you are in the market for a serger.

Now you have a neat serged edge. The threads are completely secure and haven’t moved in the serging process due to the interfacing fixed in place. From this point you can go on to use your fabric according to your plans or begin to hem.

To finish the fabric with a hem, I fold over the serged edge once and iron down flat.

Then a second fold to enclose the serged edge and interfacing, press with the iron once again and pin in place if you wish.

Sewing the hem can be done by machine or hand. I used my machine with a straight stitch, close to the folded edge at the back. My machine is a very simple and straightforward Janome, although mine is an older model you can see something similar here.

Voila! Easy peasy and all secure, no loose or displaced threads and the interfacing gives extra support when hemming!

I have a Youtube video covering this topic for your further research.

The week that went so fast…

by Kelly 4 Comments

The word “busy” is a bit overused these days I reckon, but I will admit that it was a very “full and varied” week for us! I was looking forward to today and thinking of the sewing I need to do, that great looking cook book I got from the library I haven’t had time to browse, and of course, I could warp up the loom ready for a new project. The reality of the day has been taxiing my son to kung fu, walking the dog (well that was relaxing at least!), shopping, laundry work and cooking up huge batches of bolognaise and stew for next week, which also promises to be very “full”.

I started to reflect, in my tired and slightly overworked state, that I didn’t give enough time to the kids this week, I didn’t get to help my son with that maths he’s been asking me about, didn’t get time for much reading with the girls, didn’t get to do much preparation for my daughter’s up and coming First Holy Communion…

But then I had a little reality check, that is that God was so good to tap me on the shoulder and say “wake up and check the facts”. I was really busy this week, it’s true, but what was it that kept me so occupied?

My vocation of course!

A wife, a mother, this is my vocation and this is what I do. I may not have been able to do everything that I thought was necessary, but it was because I was actively caring for my family and home, something that takes a lot of time and work.

I thought of my future self, when the children are grown and making their own way in the world. Will they say “Mum, thank you for making us study so hard, I feel so much smarter for it”. Is that what I want to hear?

Or would something like: “Mum, thank you for your constant love, care and sacrifice. Thank you for letting us be children, for enriching our lives, for being fun, for passing on our beautiful faith by your example” be more pleasing to my ageing ears?

Bring on next week!