How It Works

!Caution!

This blog post is about warping a loom.  

If you have no interest in how a loom is prepped for warp...just move right along!  ;-)

I've had a lot of people ask me how the loom works and how long it takes to make a project.  I can't tell you how long exactly...but the prep is most certainly the most time consuming.  The first part is deciding what type of design you're going to make, then you have to figure out how many ends of warp per inch, if you want a border, length, etc.  There are some awesome charts online that figure out much of this for you.  Once you have that all figured out, you get the yarn on the warping board.  For my latest project of three scarves, I figured out I need 144 ends, each being 9 yards long.  

So, here's the warping board I made for less than $30.  Much better than the $100+ ones they sell online.  Each path is 1 yard.  So you can come up with any length up to 12 yards of warp on this board.  You start at the bottom right, zig-zag your way up to the top left and wrap yourself back down and do this until you have your set amount of warp ends.

 Then you have to tie off all kinds of ends.  Won't bore you with the details, but believe me, they are important.

 Because once you have everything tied off, you can take the warp off the board, loop it in a chain so it can go on the loom.  Isn't that just pretty?

 Here we go!  Rattle goes on loom and loop the ends on the middle peg.

Here it starts getting a little crazy.  Basically, you have to split the yarn so it slides through the loom nicely.

These are lease sticks, they separate the yarn and prevent them from crossing over on each other.

Next, you take a break to yell at new kitty, Stanley, who loves yarn.  I know you don't believe it from looking at this sweet picture...but he's crazy.....CRAZY about yarn.  

Suzie, our 17 year old cat could care less.  

Once kitty is removed from loom and locked downstairs, the warping can continue and warp is then wound around the back beam.

And this is where the real fun begins.  Each one of these metal strings is called a heddle and it is attached to a shaft, the part of the loom that goes up or down depending on which peddle (treddle) you step on.  It is the order of strings in the heddles, mixed with the order of treddles that makes the pattern on the fabric.  So, you have to take great care in threading this properly....or you have to do it all over and fix from where you messed up.  Don't ask me how I know this.  ;-/

And then you have to bring each thread through the reed, which is attached to the beater...brings the yarn across the fabric and sets it in place.  That's a boat shuttle with the yarn in it.  It passes the yarn back and forth throughout the fabric.  

So there you have it!  Something like that anyway.  ;-)  It's crazy, but fun, and I love it!

Guitar Wall

We have this great space downstairs that is perfect for the music equipment, but it has mostly looked like this since moving in over a year ago.  We had some ideas rolling around of how to display his guitars, and knew we wanted hooks to display them on the wall, but they can be pretty pricey when purchased at the store.  So, a little online searching for some diy ideas, and this is what he came up with.

Some scrap lumber cut into octagons and painted black, combined with heavy duty tool hooks made some pretty nice looking guitar hangers!

And there you have the Guitar Wall! 

Here's a close up.

 I love it!  Gets them all up off the floor and it looks so cool to have them out on display instead of tucked away.  Next is to organize the recording equipment, cords, keyboard and such, but for now, so happy with how the guitar wall turned out.  

Overshot Table Runner

I had a blast weaving this Overshot Table Runner in Grey.  It has 480 warp ends...yikes!  That took some time to thread through the heddles.  Then I wove it in tabby, using two shuttles -- one in the thin warp thread alternating with the thicker, grey weft thread. 

 It was so exciting to see how the pattern came about.

 Kind of bummed about these pix.  I was taking them at night, generally not a good idea, but I was too excited...and then I'm using the wrong lens as my other lens is in need of some fixing.  

Oh well, you get the idea.

Each project I have done has had many, many "learning opportunities"....I don't like to call them mistakes. ;-)

I'm a master at fixing broken warp strings. I have learned how to make edges much more straight. I learned how to hand stitch finished edges.  I learned that 100% cotton shrinks....a lot. And I have learned that an 8 month old cat reacts differently to yarn than a 17 year old cat does....uh-huh...I don't want to talk about that.

Anyway, I took a class last week at the Weavers Guild on Fiber Characteristics.  It was a very good class and I learned so much!  So far I have worked with Pearle Cotton, Cotton Warp, Tencel, Unmercerized Cotton and I currently have Merino/Tencel on the loom.  Each project I'm trying different fibers to learn how they react on the loom and to see what I like working with best.  Again, lots of "learning opportunities"...but strangely, it doesn't upset me, I just undo whatever I need to, adjust and try again.  It's really fun learning and figuring this all out.  Now, if I can just get Stanley to leave the yarn alone...that would be swell!