WEFT article index

Have you ever considered how the heddles on your loom affect your weaving? Often as new weavers we get a loom and are simply happy to use whatever came with it. However, the type of heddle on your loom can make both the threading process and your weaving either pleasant and simple, or difficult and frustrating. It’s important to have heddles that are suited to your loom, your materials, and you. This article covers: heddle types, which heddles work on which looms, managing your heddles, adding heddles, and division and balance.

Weaving temples are instantly recognizable tools valued by weavers throughout history and across cultures. Old as the hills and infinite in variety, temples have been immortalized in the medieval stained glass of Chartres Cathedral and Van Gogh’s paintings of Nuenen weavers at work in the 1880s. These days, new temples can be purchased easily online so that devotees might have in their collection one of every possible size, while avid connoisseurs scour antique shops and old barns for vintage examples. Wondering what all the fuss is about? This article discusses what a temple does, how (and when) to use it (step-by-step), and what to do if your temple causes distress!

Do you ever avoid projects with lots of stripes because of all the color changes?  Have you ever missed or miscounted a stripe – or, worse yet, run out of yarn before finishing a warp – making your warp unintentionally asymmetrical?  Do you want to speed up the process of winding a warp in the first place?  If you answered yes to any of the above, then folded warps are for you!

The shifting ratios of gradient warps make for stunning results, but the amount of effort required to wind them can be prohibitive, not to mention prone to error. The good news is that symmetrical gradients are ideal candidates for folded warps: you’ll save half the effort of all those color changes, plus the gradient will be symmetrical even if you miscount the number of ends in a stripe or get – ahem! – creative with the blending ratios. This stunning project will walk you through creating a folded warp (f2b or b2f) and you’ll create a gorgeous gradient towl.

Susans prefers warping back to front with a raddle, and she’s tried loads of methods to help her wind on warps over the years. Some worked OK, some not so great, and some were just messy (like using water bottles). Nearly everything she tried had issues that appeared while weaving – broken threads, tangles, uneven warp tension. Her current favorite is easy to use and produces perfect results consistently: athletic weights, attached after the warp ends are through the raddle. This article explains exactly how to use this method and why it works so well!

If we are going to weave on a table or floor loom, we need some way of measuring the warp threads so they are all the same length, under tension or not. The most common options are warping boards and warping mills. Let’s delve into what they are, their advantages and disadvantages, and which one is perfect for you.

Laura Fry explains what a warping valet is and why it could change your weaving life.

A step-by-step photo guide to warping your loom front to back

Sleying errors are some of the most demoralizing things that can go wrong while dressing a loom. As you’re weaving your header, finally getting ready to start your project after all the work of warping, beaming, and threading, you notice ends sleyed in the wrong order, or the wrong number in a dent. Now instead of throwing a shuttle, you have to stop, sigh deeply, and dig your sley hook back out. Luckily, sleying errors are often easy to fix. Here’s how to move past them to the weaving part of weaving as painlessly as possible. This article covers identifying and fixing sleying order errors denting errors, and missed threads.

A step-by-step photo guide to warping your loom back to front

A supplementary warp is a secondary warp that can be used in conjunction with a ground warp but is tensioned separately. It’s sometimes called a compound weave. If a pattern requires a different take-up for different portions of the warp, using a supplementary warp can make that easy. This article will teach you what a a supplementary warp is, when to use one, and how! It also covers using a supplementary warp with and without a secondary beam.

Felicia explains what a warping trapeze is and why it could change your weaving life.

Interested in sectional warping? Felicia Lo explains what it is, why you might want to use it, and how do do it! In traditional warping techniques, a warp is measured using a warping board or warping mill and then wound onto the back beam of the loom all at once. With sectional warping, small sections of the warp are beamed one at a time until the entire width of the warp is complete. This comes with a few benefits: Smaller sections for wide warps, more consistent warp tension, short sessions for time-strapped weavers, and less work for long warps. Step-by-step photos will have you warping in no time!

Want to know what some of the best weavers use to separate their warps? This short series of articles has then telling you exactly what they do!

Turning a draft is magical and not so hard. This article walks you through exactly why you’d want to do it (sett, time, selvedge, drape, pattern, yarn effectiveness), how to do it, and which structures you can successfully turn.

Tying on is a wonderful of warping. It’s the last step before you can start weaving, and that’s exciting! But it can be frustrating, especially with a slippery or fragile warp or a loom that is just a little bit off square, and sometimes you have to go back and forth adjusting the tension two or three times to get it just right. It can make sampling hard because you don’t want to cut off a piece and have to re-tie and re-tension. Sometimes you have to cut a piece off the warp for reasons other than sampling, and knowing how to cut off without losing that perfect tension is useful. Knowing this technique is useful is so many situations and it’s quick and easy!

A step-by-step guide to making an easy and quick repair heddle

At the heart of weaving is the art and science of mastering even warp tension. Identifying and addressing warp tension problems early on in your project is key to achieving your weaving goals. Here, we’ll explore common signs of tension trouble, causes of tension trouble, and practical solutions to help you get your weaving back on track.

Hand painting your own warps gives you an incredible amount of freedom and flexibility. It gives you an opportunity to infuse your own creativity and flair into every piece you weave in a way that is unique to you. You can dive deep into your own style, which will develop and grow the more you do it. No two pieces will ever be identical. Here’s an easy to follow guide to painting your first warp!

A twill scarf like a hug using a handpainted warp on 8- or 12-shafts

Justin explains and teaches how to warp with multiple ends using historical method that he says may be tricky to pick up and can seem overwhelming at first. You might try it and want to go right back to winding with one end at a time. Learning a new skill can be hard, but once it clicks, you’ll save time and wear and tear on your body and join centuries of weavers from around the globe.

Justin, like pretty much every handweaver in the US today, was taught to insert packing between layers of warp, and he dutifully obeyed for hist first eighteen years of weaving. But as a studen of history and weaving, he’s found no mention of historical packing but instead a common technique for beaming a warp that doesn’t require any.

A step-by-step guide to warping back to front (just like Jane)

What is the best way to warp a loom? That’s an awesome question with many possible answers. We all learn to warp a loom from our very first weaving teacher, whether that be an in-person instructor, a book, or someone on the World Wide Web. Sometimes those experiences are great, and other times they leave us totally overwhelmed and in need of a stiff drink. Jane talks us through many many ways to warp a loom and encourages us all to find the way that works for us.