How to Start Weaving with What You Have at Home
Well, my quick growing obsession with fiber arts has now, very naturally, transitioned into modern weaving.
For some reason I have a hard time throwing away craft scraps — which sounds fine, until you start to find little pouches and plastic baggies stuffed with yarn scraps everywhere. I had been brainstorming ideas of how I could use all this up. (Meanwhile: Pinterest is showing me images of woven hangings that just steal my heart) I eventually put it together to use some of my yarn scraps in a teeny little weaving.
Weaving uses a lot less yarn than knitting or crochet, because it’s basically just going back and forth across the length of your project. It’s also much easier (in my opinion) to drop a strand if you suddenly run out and still make it look nice. Ie: good for shorter yarn pieces. It’s a lot faster to work up too!
And the BEST part about weaving, is you really don’t need any fancy equipment. You may have even practices weaving in grade school on a piece of cardboard (which, by the way, is the perfect size if you’re trying to use up some scrap yarn). It is a little easier to weave on a sturdier loom though, so if you’re planning on making a large piece, you should consider building a simple loom at home.
Step 1: build a basic loom
You will need:
An unused picture frame
Tape measure or ruler
Pencil
Hammer
Small Nails (roughly 30-50, depending on the size of your frame)
Instructions:
A basic lap loom consists of an open rectangular frame with evenly spaced pegs on the top and bottom. You can make your loom as simple as a piece of paper or cardboard with cut slots. It is, however, a lot easier to weave on a sturdier build like one made out of wood or a picture frame.
To start your DIY frame loom, take the backing and glass out of your picture frame so you have an open rectangle.
Line your ruler up with the bottom left corner of your frame and mark along the bottom edge in even increments (I recommend half an inch or less from each other). When you’ve gotten to the far right of your frame, repeat the process along the top edge. Be sure not to flip your loom between top and bottom edges, each mark on the top edge should be directly above one on the bottom.
Now the tedious part: carefully hammer a nail into each marker on your loom.
Quick Weaving Vocab Lesson
You really only need to know two terms for weaving: warp and weft.
WARP are the strings placed vertically up and down your loom. This is the structure that holds your entire weaving together, so you’ll want to be sure to choose something thin with no stretch in it. Common kitchen/ butchers twine is a great option, but really anything similar will work.
WEFT is the yarn you weave through the warp strands to create your piece. You can use almost anything as weft strands— like various yarns or ropes, wool roving, ribbons, wire, or even strips of fabric or plastic.
I like to remember the difference by thinking this: WRAP the WARP and WEAVE the WEFT.
For some reason “weft” sounds like it could be the past tense of “weave” so it works for me. You could also think about the weft yarn going from WEFT to RIGHT on your loom.
Step 2: Warp your Loom
The action of wrapping the warp strings on your loom is simply called warping, and the process is just as straight forward as the name:
Start by tying a single knot around the lower left nail on your loom. You don’t need to warp the entire width of your loom, but the amount of nails you wrap around will determine how wide your final piece will be.
Bring your warp string in a straight line upwards to the nail directly above where you started; pass it around the top nail and back down. Loop it around the next nail to the right and back up, making a long and narrow zig zag pattern. You’ll want to maintain an even tension while warping your loom, but we will tighten the tension again before we secure the warp.
When you get to the last nail in your warping area, wrap your warp string around the nail a few times for a temporary hold.
TIGHTENING TENSION
Go back to the first nail on your warp and gently tug each strand, following the direction of the yarn. Your warp should have an even tension all across and feel springy when you pluck it.
Step 3: Begin your weaving
Starting at the bottom left of your loom, use the same string you used as warp threads to add some basic weave (AKA Tabby weave) to secure the bottom of your weaving. If you’re adding fringe to the bottom of your weaving, these rows will support the fringe and be hidden behind them. If you’re not adding fringe and don’t want to see warp threads, you can use another sturdy yarn for this base.
TABBY WEAVE
The most basic weaving technique is called tabby weave, and you’ll probably use this one the most, especially when you first begin.
Start at the bottom left of your loom and weave your string under the first warp, then over the second, under the third, and so on. You can use a tapestry needle to help guide your yarn through each strand.
Refrain from pulling your weft strands too tight while weaving, so that you don’t disturbed the tension of the warp. A good trick to keep a loose weft is to weave your string in a hill shape, then gently bat it down with a wide tooth comb or fork from the center out.
and that’s it!
There are plenty of more complicated stitches to learn, but there is also so much you can do with the basics! Try weaving with different materials or yarn weights, or building shapes with your weaving. The possibilities are endless once you start.
