Rigid heddle weaving

Chose this yarn for a scarf,it is so soft. Fiber content is 80% acrylic and 20 % wool

 This warping process is called direct warping. First step is to decide how long your warp has to be, calculate loom waste, how much the length will shorten up with the weaving, and don't forget your fringe!  Then position the loom that distance away from the warping peg, a wooden peg that holds the warp.  For this warp, the distance was 10 feet.  My front porch is the best place to do this, it is long and runs across most of the front of the house.  The loom (a 15" Schacht Flip loom) will hold up to 15 feet, or 3 yards of warp at a time.  I will share some more pics of our front porch later, it was quite a process to get that beautiful sitting room out there.   

Then tie the yarn to the back beam and thread a loop of yarn through the slot of the heddle,then over to the warping peg,  put the loop over the peg and walk back to the loom. Repeat until all the slots are filled for the width you want.  You might have noticed the warp isn't centered on the loom.  That is because I also weave dishcloths on this loom and have marked the placement of that warp with yellow yarn.  The finished width is 9 inches, and the scarves width is marked with green yarn.  Realized my mistake halfway through warping, and didn't want to start over so just left it like it is. 

Now to wind on:  I leave the warp on the peg,and wind on while moving the loom itself towards the peg. Putting a rug under the loom stand helps it slide on the hard wood flooring.  That keeps tension on the warp,and you have better control of the winding on. Placing paper between the layers helps with tension,also. The next step is to take one of the warp strands out of the slot and bring through the hole in the heddle. This happens all the way across the loom. Then tie onto the front bar.

All tied on and ready to start weaving.  I will start with some scrap yarn in a contrast color to even out the warp and get the tension  just right before weaving the actual scarf.



 


Here is the weaving in progress.  Since it's such a soft yarn, the threads have been abraded a little bit from going through the heddle so much.  It's a fuzzy yarn, anyway, so it probably won't matter too much, like most weaving we won't know until it's off the loom what we end up with.