Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

pick up sticks

How to Use Pick-Up Sticks: Unlock New Possibilities on Your Rigid Heddle Loom

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Pick-up sticks are a game-changer for rigid heddle weaving. These simple tools expand your loom’s capabilities, allowing you to create intricate patterns beyond plain weave. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to elevate your skills, this guide will help you understand how to use pick-up sticks effectively.

What Are Pick-Up Sticks?

Pick-up sticks are flat, smooth lengths of wood designed to manipulate warp threads on your loom. They allow you to create patterns that mimic the capabilities of multi-shaft looms without adding complex equipment.

On a rigid heddle loom, the warp is divided into two “shafts”—slot threads and hole threads. By incorporating pick-up sticks, you can manipulate the slot threads to create additional “shafts,” opening up a world of pattern possibilities.

Why Use Pick-Up Sticks?

  1. Expand Your Weaving Capabilities:
    • One pick-up stick = 3 shafts.
    • Two pick-up sticks = 4 shafts.
    • Add more for even greater complexity!
  2. Create Beautiful Patterns:
    From simple designs to intricate motifs, pick-up sticks make it possible to weave beyond plain weave.
  3. Learn, Experiment and have Fun:
    They’re an excellent way to play, experiment, and grow as a weaver.

How to Use Pick-Up Sticks

Tools You’ll Need:

  • Pick-up sticks: Slightly longer than the width of your warp.
  • Rigid heddle loom: Set up for plain weave.

Step-by-Step Guide:

  1. Start with the Heddle in the Down Position:
    • This raises the slot threads (shaft 2), making them easier to pick up.
    • The hole threads (shaft 1) remain fixed and cannot be manipulated.
  2. Pick Up Warp Threads:
    • Slide your pick-up stick under the threads you want to manipulate.
    • For basic patterns, follow a “1 up, 1 down” sequence (alternate threads over and under the stick).
  3. Position the Pick-Up Stick:
    • Push the stick to the back of your loom when not in use. It will rest flat between the warp threads without interfering with your weaving.
  4. Engage the Pick-Up Stick:
    • When ready to weave a pick-up pattern, bring the stick forward, turn it on its edge, and pass your shuttle through the shed.

Here is a simple weaving sequence as an example:

  1. Up (heddle up)
  2. Down (heddle down)
  3. Up, pick up stick (heddle up and slide pick up stick behind the heddle, leaving flat).

Tips for Beginners

  • Experiment Freely: Don’t worry about understanding all the technical details at first. Play with different sequences and see how the patterns emerge.
  • Follow Patterns: Written instructions like “1 up, 1 down” are straightforward and a great way to learn.
  • Start with Simple Projects: Try my Wash Your Hands Towel Set Project or Lux Hand Towels pattern for guided practice.

Explore More Pick-Up Stick Resources

Why You’ll Love Pick-Up Stick Weaving

Pick-up sticks let you unlock the full potential of your rigid heddle loom. Whether you’re weaving a simple scarf or an intricate towel, these tools are a must-have for any weaver.

If this guide has been helpful or if you have questions, leave a comment below—I’d love to hear from you!

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

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

1/5 Warp Floats on a Rigid Heddle Loom

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A weaving float is not always viewed as something desirable. But that is usually when it’s unintended or unplanned. Floats can actually be utilised in many ways, particularly for texture and pattern weaving.

So, what is a float? Well, if you think about it, weaving is made up of floats. The plain weave structure or interlacement occurs when the threads go over/under/over/under each other. We wouldn’t generally think of this interlacement as being comprised of floats, but that’s what it is, just really short floats.

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

A float can be described as any thread travelling over another. Most of the time when we refer to floats, we are talking about a thread travelling over more than one other, often a group.

A float can occur either horizontally or vertically. A horizontal float is known as a weft float. A vertical float is known as a warp floats. Today’s tutorial is specifically for warp floats.

In case you need a visual reference on the difference between a warp and a weft float, The Heart Scarf Project uses weft floats (note that the grey weft floats are horizontal).

Weft floats

Today’s tutorial is specifically for rigid heddle weavers.

What you will need:

  • Yarn that is appropriate for the project you’re weaving and the heddle size you’re using. In this tutorial, I am playing around with a sampler and used a dk weight rainbow dyed cotton in the warp and a dk weight navy wool weft. My heddle size was 7.5dpi.

We begin by placing the heddle in the DOWN position so that all slot threads are raised. It is the slot threads that we want to pick up, not the hole threads. You can consider the hole threads as already picked up, by being held in the holes.

If you have not used a pick up stick before, don’t worry, they are very easy to get started with by following some very basic rules. If you want to gain some familiarity with how you might use a pick up stick, check out this video before going through the rest of the tutorial:

If you specifically would like to see what a 1/1 pick up looks like (which is what I use for this tutorial), I demonstrate it in this video at around the 10 minute mark 😉

Once your pick up stick is in place you are ready to start weaving the sequence. Your shuttle should be filled with your weft yarn. In my case, I’m using a solid, dark weft to contrast with the colourful warp.

Place the heddle in the DOWN position, throw your shuttle, then beat.

Change to the UP shed and slide your pick up stick forward to sit behind the heddle. There is no need to turn your pick up stick on edge, and in any case it would be very difficult to do so with the up shed being so firm. You can see the pick up stick right against the back of the heddle in the above picture.

Throw your shuttle and beat. Slide the pick up stick to the back of the loom.

Change to the DOWN shed. When you enter the shed with stick shuttle this time, you will need to manually go around the warp edge thread – it won’t catch on it’s own. This is really common when you move away from plain weave. If you need more information on the concept of manually going around the edges, I have a detailed article here.

Throw your shuttle and beat.

Change to the UP shed. Bring the pick up stick forward and lay it flat at the back of the heddle once more. Throw the shuttle and beat. Slide the pick up stick back.

Change to the DOWN shed. Again, you will need to catch the edge warp as you enter the shed. Throw shuttle and beat.

By now you will notice the vertical floats forming and getting longer. Really long floats are not practical, as they will catch on things, so it’s time to halt the float in it’s tracks with a tie down thread.

Change to the UP position. No pick up stick this time! Throw the shuttle and beat.

That is one complete weaving sequence. If you want to continue weaving the pattern, you go back to the beginning and work through the steps again.

If you would like the pick up and weaving sequence in a printable format, please click on the download button.

15-warp-floats-Download

If you would like to see this tutorial in video format, I have you covered!

If you want to explore floats further, I have a lot resources to help (too many to list here!) that you can find here on my blog or Youtube channel.

I also want to recommend Jane Patrick’s The Weaver’s Idea Book. It has a HUGE section on weaving warp and weft floats that you will find very instructive and inspiring.

I hope this was helpful to you, be sure to leave any questions or comments down below!

Until next time…

Happy Weaving

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How to Use Pick-Up Sticks

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Pick-up sticks can be a game-changer for rigid heddle weaving. These simple tools expand your loom’s capabilities, allowing you to create intricate patterns beyond plain weave. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to elevate your skills, this guide will help you understand how to use pick-up sticks effectively.

A rigid heddle loom has 2 shafts, essentially the hole threads and the slot threads. These 2 shafts allow you to work plain weave, which is a perfectly lovely weave structure on it’s own, but most weavers will begin with plain weave and then want to increase their own skills and their loom’s capabilities.

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

This is where pick up sticks enter and shine. Basically, they are simple, flat and smooth lengths of wood. You pick up warp threads and operate the stick/s from behind the heddle/reed. Your pick up sticks need to be longer than the width of your project, or they won’t hold the picked up threads. For my 24″ rigid heddle loom I use 24″ pick up sticks. I can use these same sticks whether my project is narrow or full loom width.

Incorporate one pick up stick and you can weave on 3 shafts. Incorporate two pick up sticks and you can weave on 4 shafts. And you can keep going from there, although you will probably want to learn about installing heddle rods to increase time efficiency. I happen to have a video showing you how to do that:

If that is a bit much for you at the moment, you can run with the knowledge that pick up sticks allow you to weave pretty patterns!

One of the rules of picking up warp threads with a stick is that your heddle needs to be in the “down” position. The threads we want to pick up must be slot threads, as the hole threads are already committed and are therefore inflexible.

Trying to pick up hole threads would be like trying to pick up the same threads twice! The slot threads are normally our shaft 2 threads and when we place the heddle in down position, they are raised.

Because we push our pick up stick/s to the back when not in use and they lay flat between the warp threads, they do not hinder you from being able to still operate shaft 2, as well as an additional shaft when the stick is engaged.

But I don’t think that you need to understand any of the above in order to use one or two pick up sticks, I certainly didn’t know what I was doing when I started with them. I just played around and liked what I saw and you can do the same!

Even if you are using a written pattern, you still don’t need a lot of understanding to follow them. If you see the instructions “1 up, 1 down” for your pick up, it simply means 1 warp thread will sit on top of the pick up stick, the next will sit underneath it and this will repeat across the warp.

Pick up sampler

The instructions for the actual weaving will be a little different, but easy to follow. Here is a simple weaving sequence as an example:

  1. Up (heddle up)
  2. Down (heddle down)
  3. Up, pick up stick (heddle up and slide pick up stick behind the heddle, leaving flat).

If you want to see pick up sticks and examples of pick up patterns demonstrated, watch my free Youtube video:

If you’re interested in exploring pick up in the form of a project, I can help! My Kitchen Cloths on a rigid heddle loom project is available as an online class.

In my Etsy shop, you will find my Lux Hand Towels pattern, which also uses pick up.

Lux Hand Towels

Oh, and let’s not forget the free pattern you receive when you sign up to my email list, the Moroccan Dream Scarf, which is easy enough for beginner pick up stick adventurists and can look so varied, depending on the yarn and colours you decide on.

The Moroccan Dream Scarf

I have some really cool pick up patterns for free, along with a video tutorial in this post.

I’m quite sure that you will be interested in taking a look at my Pick Up Stick Playlist on Youtube:

I also have a comprehensive course, Pick Up Perfection, available for purchase. If you have a membership to the Online Weaving School, this class is included for free.

I hope this has helped you to understand how pick up sticks can be utilised in your weaving. If this post has been useful to you or if you have any questions, please leave me a comment, I love to hear from you 😊

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!