SETTING UP TABLE TOP WEAVING LOOM & SAMPLING

Last year, I was very lucky to be given a very old four shaft table top weaving loom. It has taken a long time to set up and prepare to use in my current project, but the results are always worth it!

• Before winding the warp, I had to make my own pegs to wind on as I don't have a warp frame. I cut some dowelling down to use as pegs and cut down a roll of thick card tube which I then made a hole in the tube to slot in the dowels. I clamped this onto my table and hey presto! Makeshift warp pegs.
• I made sure that the distance between the pegs was the right for for the warp, so that it was suitable for my small table top weaving loom.

Photo showing cross section being held in place with some fabric when the yarn was ready to take off the pegs.

I also made my own raddle to keep the yarn in order and evenly distributed for winding onto the loom. (I took this off when the warp had been tied on).

I used some scrap t-shirt fabric to hold the warp taught whilst I threaded the yarn through the heddles.

As I don't have a threading hook, I managed to use a hair pin to thread the warp yarn through the heddle holes, this seemed to work quite well!

Photo above showing the warp threaded in the plain twill pattern. 1,2,3,4. 1,2,3,4. etc..

Photo showing the reed once it had been threaded. I only have a rigid heddle reed however I threaded this missing the rigid holes so that I could use it as a normal reed.

I then tied the warp wool into knots in groups of 8 to then tie onto the front stick with some strong string. I used this method as it is easy to change the tension and remove from the loom when finished weaving.

To start the weaving, it is best to start with a simple weaving plain cloth pattern.

The loom in action!

Weaving Samples

All wool used for the weft, I spun and dyed myself.

After having a play around with some random patterns I drew up, I decided to follow a page of different patterns from a page I found online.

Twill patterns ^

When trying out the twill patterns, I found that they work best with coloured wool as they create zig zag patterns and it is easier to see when the warp and weft are different colours.

Hopsack Patterns ^

The hopsack patterns are my favourite samples. I love the basket pattern and the texture it creates. I have taken note of which patterns I would like to revisit!

Plain weave techniques with two colours ^

Here I have a small sample where I tried weaving with two colours, I quite like the simplicity of the plain weave pattern at the bottom.

After spending such a long time setting up and making parts for this loom, it's safe to say it's definitely been worth it. Now I know how to set up the warp properly I will be much quicker setting it up next time and would like to create some pieces with these techniques!

🌱Kat Webb🌱