DIY Network

Weaving 101 Our guest experts demystify the process of weaving. From "Uncommon Threads" episode DUCT-203

The group Follow Through Design join host Allison Whitlock for a lesson on weaving 101.

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Dressing the Loom

Andrea López and Travis Meinolf set up a floor loom and explain how to use it.

	Woven fabric
	Woven fabric (detail)

Materials:

4-harness jack loom
UKI 10-2 mercerized cotton thread in the following amounts/colors: 360 yds. bright red, 360 yds. bright orange, 1,360 yds. bright yellow, 360 yds. black
boat shuttle
warping board
lease sticks
approximately 10 yds. thick scrap yarn for header

1. Decide the size of the project that you want to make. The maximum width is decided by the width of the loom. There is no maximum length, but make it within reason. Keep in mind the fabric will be difficult to work with if you try to make more than 15 yards at a time.

2. Figure out the ends per inch (EPI) of the fabric by wrapping the yarn you will use for warp around a ruler and seeing how much fits in 1/2". A medium-weight fabric that's still not too hard to set up will be maybe 20 EPI.

3. Multiply the EPI by the width of the piece (e.g., 20EPI x 20" wide = 400 ends for the project). This is a good time to let you know that the piece will probably lose about 10 percent of the width when you take it off the loom.

Yarn tied to back beam

4. Use a warping board (or chair legs or something similar) to measure out the ends. If you are continuing with our example, to weave a 3-yd. piece of fabric that is 20" wide, you'll want 400 3-yd. lengths, looped back and forth.

5. Now that you have the warp, start threading it through the loom. First each warp is threaded, in sequence, through the dents of the reed. Once you have all 400 through, it's time to move on to the heddles.

6. With the ends sticking out of the reed, start pulling them through and threading them through the heddles in the harnesses, according to your pattern. For a plain weave, we usually use a twill setup, 1-2-3-4 (meaning first through a heddle in the first harness, then one in the second, the third, the fourth, and repeated).

Yarn threaded through heddles

Yarn threaded through heddles (alternate view)

7. Once all 400 ends are threaded through the heddles, pull them in bundles (about 20 per bundle) to the back beam and tie them on, using a square knot.

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