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!