Weaving a Sustainable Home

The biggest problem with weaving is that in almost all cases, you can find woven products for much less in thrift, resale, or even retail stores for less than what you can purchase the yarn or thread to weave. The exceptions occur when you are making your own yarn, or are given yarn at little or no cost.

Wind the warp

Thread the loom

Weave the weft

Glossary:

Sett, EPI, TPI, or thread count

Number of threads per inch. Found in pattern notes or deturmined by wrapping some thread around a ruler or stick for a total of 1 inch, then counting the number of loops or ends.

Warp

Threads running from front to back on a loom. These are wound onto the loom first, and then the Weft is woven into them.

Weft

Threads running from side to side on a loom.

Take-up & Shrinkage

Extra length of warp required due to shrinkage and take-up.

Loom Waste

Extra length of warp required to tie the warp to the back and front of the loom

Make More

To avoid waste, enough warp for more than one item can be wound at one time.

Dent

Teeth in the Reed.

Reed Dent

Spacing of the Dent in the Reed. The Sett may be a multiple or fraction of the Reed Dent.

Reed

The comb that seperates and spaces the warp. It is placed in the Beater.

Beater

A movable bar that holds the Reed and is used to beat each new weft against the previous.

Warping Board

A board or frame with pins to assist in makeing loops of material for the warp.

Warping Mill

A machine for winding many loops of material for the warp.

Cross

The point in the Warp loop where the material is crossed over itself. Each loop is really a figure 8. The Cross keeps the warp yarns in the order that they were threaded.

Warp Chain

The set of loops made on the Warping Board or Mill. When the loops are removed, they are keep in a chain to prevent tangleing.

Lease sticks

Long sticks that hold the warp threads in order while you are threading the loom. They are threaded through the Cross.

Heddles

Vertical wires with a small open loop about half way up. Each of these is connected to a Shaft. The warp ends are threaded through the loop in some Heddles so that as the Heddles are lifted or dropped, the warp ends are also lifted and dropped.

Shaft

The vertical frame that lifts and drops the Heddles.

The total length required is: Warp *  Ends  where Warp = (Length + Hems*2 + T&S )* Make + Waste and Ends = (Width + T&S) * Sett

• http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/aa00/aa031600.htm 10 Steps to Warping a Loom - a beginner's guide.

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