I finally set up my backstrap loom! Hooray! I went out to Lowes and bought two 3/4" wide 36" long oak dowels. (Poplar was cheaper, but I'm allergic to it and it makes me itchy) I cut them in half to 18" for my loom. I also bought a pack of miscellaneous dowels from Walmart for extras and shed sticks, as well as some square dowels and narrow craft sticks that I *might* try to make a rigid heddle with. We'll see :) 

For yarn, I bought what I could find. Peaches and Cream cotton. 4ply, worsted weight. I know this isn't the best to weave with. It definitely frayed and came apart a lot.

I stuck two of the square dowels in my bookcase, and kept shoving in books until they weren't moving for my warping pegs. I saw this on a youtube video and thought it was a great idea. You don't know how differently I've been looking at everything in my house, looking for things with paralell legs lol that I could possibly warp on.

I used a towel as my temporary backstrap (it was just what I could find). I tried a couple different tie-up situations, like to my closet doorknob, to my window frame. But it was so topsy-turvy. I was also using nylon string to tie it up, which came untied. I should have listened to advice against nylon :) It definitely didn't keep tied.

I finally ended up lashing the end bar to a ladder back chair, with some weight on the chair, and bracing my feet against it when I needed to. I don't think this worked well. The chair did move some. I think I might need to put more weight on it, or find another place to tie up. I ended securing everything with some leftover cotton yarn. A lot more secure than the nylon.

I put my string heddles over a stick, and used a shed stick even though I was trying a narrow band just because I wanted the practice.

I'm actually kind of embarrassed to put my pictures on here. This first one is kind of atrocious lol. And I messed it up pretty badly. I actually wound 13 warps instead of 14 which would help to make things uneven, right? I untied that last warp and took it off, so by the time of this weaving (the third go) I only had 12. And I missed one of the warps that should have gone through a string heddle, so the left side is really wonky. The right side is pretty wonky too, though. I think I was having problems with the end warps being slack, but I'll show you the pictures and you can judge. Towards the end of the piece, I increased tension a lot and I think it was coming out a bit better.

Also, I have got to find a new beater! First I used cardboard. Then bookboard (heavy cardboard that you use to make hardcover books). Then a metal ruler. I know! I wasn't supposed to use a metal ruler. But do you know that I can't find a wooder ruler anywhere in this house? Or plastic even. No normal rulers. Just those wide acrylic ones for other craft things lol.

All right, pictures. Don't laugh :) And sorry these aren't that great, it was dark when I was setting up. I will take better pictures of my set up when I try again later today.

Bookcase warping boardFunky ends - are they too slack?bookcase warping set up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

funky ends - are my end warps too slack? It was like the weft wouldn't stay flat at the ends... if that makes sense.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See? weird ends

Weird ends again. Atrocious! 

Awkward, but whole setup

Blurry picture of the whole set up. I think this was before I fixed the warps.

Progress

Progress. Up towards the top is where I increased the tension a little more. Ignore how my yarn is completely shredded!

 

Comments

Wed, 02/03/2010 - 16:36

bolivian warmi

Hi Tara,

I know that Youtube video you are talking about. It has a(cute!) guy outdoors weaving  with a rigid heddle on a loom he built himself, right? I liked that bookcase idea too but wasn't sure how well the books would hold the stakes. Sounds like you had success with it.

If you use different yarn-preferably mercerized or even crochet cotton and get a bettet beater organized, things will improve immensely for you. There is a trick to tying up to doorknobs which I have just discovered as I have had to tie up to the handle on my window to get enough natural light to take photos and there is definitely a way to tie on that just doesn't work-the loom flips about all over the place-and a way that does. It took a lot of experimenting and patience!!

There is definitely improvement in the last photo! As for the slack end warps-perfectly normal and  there is an FAQ thread just for this........

www.weavolution.com/node/7288

A shed loop might work better for this narrow warp instead of the dowel-I bet that dowel was slipping about and being annoying. You could also put in a second cross to hold it in place. See an explanation of that on this thread.........

www.weavolution.com/node/7259

Time for project two with all your new found wisdom! :-)

Thanks for posting your pictures and story. It will be a great help to others who are starting out.

Laverne

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wed, 02/03/2010 - 23:02

siseltikva (not verified)

Thank you for your encouragement! :) 

Yep, that's the video! Here's the link: www.youtube.com/watch

Round 2. I'm using crochet thread (like "bedspread cotton" or the stuff you make doilies out of - very thin stuff! but its okay.) It's behaving a lot better than the other cotton I was using. I'm using a bone folder from my bookmaking supplies as a beater lol. It's not very wide but it works. I'm using a dowel as a shuttle. Put some cup hooks in my window frame (my mom might not be so happy about that hehe) to hold my loom, which I'm liking a lot. I'm also almost sitting on my backstrap, which is good, so that then I don't move and change the tension accidentally.

And... well, I'm still doing something weird. I tried retying my end warps (per the tutorial) after I noticed I was still having the same problem with the loopy weft yarn, wrapping kind of strangely around the last two warps like it did before. You can see it in one of my pictures from before. It evened out some once I started weaving, so maybe that's normal.

I still think I'm doing something wrong... it looks like the weft goes over two warp yarns on the far left side of my band this time. I think I'm messing up somewhere in my warping or something, consistently. Because its still just not right. I understood more of this time, that the end loops (where you begin and end warping) should be over the loom bar, and that I should put a loop of yarn through them so I don't loose them when I'm still on the warping pegs. And the other yarn loop is just to keep everything in place. Is that right?

Wed, 02/03/2010 - 23:04

siseltikva (not verified)

Also, I thought I saw a tutorial or diagram somewhere on here about how to tie the knot you were talking about using, when you re-tie your end warps, but I can't find it. Did I make up that it was on here? lol

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 00:23

mischiefmanaged (not verified)

Nope, it's here, near the end of the FAQ on warping:

http://www.weavolution.com/node/6221

Cindy

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 00:42

siseltikva (not verified)

Thanks so much! I would have never found that. :) 

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 05:08

Caroline (not verified)

hi, if you are having problems picking up every other warp thread to make a shed and get the continuous heddle on them, its worth using a temporary 3rd shed stick. You then pick the warps from those threads that go over the first 2 shed sticks, which gives you your 2 alternate sheds, then remove the front shed stick, and both sets of heddles will run free up and down the warp. This can be quicker and easier than trying to pick up alternate threads through each other, and you can easily check  that you have no crossed warps.

Ask me how I know...<grin>.

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 12:28

bolivian warmi

Here are the cross sticks in the warp as the warp comes off the warping board. The upper stick gets replaced by the shed stick (or loop) and  all the threads which are passing over the lower stick go into the heddles. There shouldn't be any problem with looking for and picking up every othe thread-they are all there right in front of you going over the lower cross stick.

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 13:14

Caroline (not verified)

If you lose your cross, for whatever reason, it doesn't always come back looking like that, grrrrrrr! and sometimes its not obvious to the untrained eye that the warp threads have not gone through the cross in an orderly manner, even if you think you have checked them. If you cross the first warp you pick up for the continuous heddle, you can inadvertently end up with a bunch of twisted warps - after a debacle like that its sometimes  easier to add the third lease stick at the back, and work off the first 2 to pick up the warps on the heddles. Its clumsy, but it also provides a "security blanket' you can use to check that the warps have not crossed, particularly useful if using a black or fine warp, because you can tug the warp you are about to pick up on the first row, and check that its in the corresponding place on the back lease stick. If not, something has crossed and twisted. This does assume that you have correctly picked the sheds in the first place and that the warps are in their correct order in the cross. If not, its easier to start all over again.

This is where a video is worth a hundred clumsy verbal descriptions. I can only tell you how I solve  losing or destroying the cross, without have to undo everything and starting again.

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 13:34

bolivian warmi

I see what you are saying Caroline-adding a security banket or extra safety strings, all good ideas- but in a simple figure of eight warp, no sheds need to be picked-the two sheds are automatically formed as you warp. You just slide two sticks into the cross that was formed as you wound your figure of eight and you will end up with what you see in my photo above. Even if your cross sticks fall out, the loom bars are holding the cross. If you lose your cross completely, that is, if your loom bars have fallen out somehow or you pulled them out by mistake, then you are better off starting over and rewarping.

I can see the complication when you are making multiple sheds for a twill or something like that where you are physically picking up warps to make sheds.

 

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 13:51

Caroline (not verified)

Yes, both times did require extra sheds like twill, which increases the chance of accidentally crossing warps considerably. The first time I jumped up and not only lost the lease sticks, but because the continous warp was only loose on the front and back loom bars.....................'nuff said.

I was stubborn. Stood me in good stead when the warp I dropped was for a twill, hehe! and its handy for changing the warp pattern too.

Night all!

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 14:03

bolivian warmi

Tara, this will give you an idea of what  edges look like. I used a warp and weft of different colors so you can see how the weft sits at the edge. The first few weft pases will be wonky-don't worry about those-things will settle down. The white part of this band is in double weave.  The tan part on the edges is  plain warp faced weaving which is what you are doing.

 

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 14:07

bolivian warmi

Maybe I should put that knot on a separate FAQ thread? Easier to find.

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 16:58

siseltikva (not verified)

Thanks so much! You guys are really great! This is really helpful. I think I just need to be REALLY careful when I'm warping and make sure all the warps are in the right place, and being really careful when I'm making my heddles too. The close up pictures definitely help. Yesterday (band #2), I switched to a different color weft so I could see what my selvedges were doing and they were doing something weird. Again, probably crossed warps or incorrectly strung heddles.

I think I can picture what you're talking about, adding a temporary stick. Would that be like the tutorial for adding a second cross? I can see where that would be helpful, to be able to tug on a warp yarn and make sure it was in the same place on the third stick.

My sister (floor loom weaver and otherwise fiber geek) gave me some of her carpet warp left over from school in some lovely colors, which I'm pretty excited about. The great part is I can get it locally! Well, sort of. Its 45 minutes away, but I have other reasons to go to the town that its in (like friends!) so its worth it. (The carpet warp is probably from here: www.yarn.com/webs-weaving-spinning-weaving-yarns-fiber-cotton-cotton-blends/webs-weaving-yarns-maysville-84-cotton-carpet-warp/) I've read that some of you have used that. I will make sure and add it to the "suitable yarns" thread if it works out well. Does it wear okay, I mean if I use the same carpet warp for my heddles? I have some nylon yarn that I could use as well for heddles, if I needed to. She also gave me three small bobbins of perle cotton (5/2 perle cotton I think).

Thanks for all your help! I think I'm going to try a small warp of carpet warp later today, and pay all kinds of extra attention, and use the knot diagram for retying my end warps. Thanks for all of your encouragement, I'm trying not to get discouraged. Afterall, I've never woven anything before two days ago. :) (Okay, okay, I did make a plain weave picture frame loom once, but I had no idea what I was doing, and I only wove about an inch. And that warp was warped right on the loom) 

Thu, 02/04/2010 - 18:02

bolivian warmi

Tara, you should try the nylon for the heddles and the carpet warp and see which you like better. I always use my warp thread for heddles but other people love nylon for their heddles. Experiment and see what you like.

Sat, 02/06/2010 - 04:03

siseltikva (not verified)

Warp #3 went a lot better! I was really careful when I warped and made my string heddles, so there were no crossed warps this time. I tied and retied and cut (probably bad!) and retied my end warps, throughout the weaving, to get the tension right. I played with the tension a lot on the end warps, and I'm not sure if at some points they were too tight. I can't tell. I also varied how tight I was pulling the weft through. I noticed about halfway through that I was sort of pulling the weft down, like in a lowercase n shape, and so I stopped doing that and I think it looked better. Also by the end, I had taken a lot of tension off the loom, and I wasn't pulling so hard on the weft. You can tell a big difference in flexibility in the first and last sections.

beginning - too loose?

Here's the beginning of the band. I think the end warps were too loose here.

The middle

I think this was improved, but I think it got even better after I let some of the tension off the warp in the next picture. I also wove most of the last picture horizontally, which I liked a lot better actually!

the end

Does this look about right? I think I've been staring and critiquing and fooling with the end warps for too long. I don't even know what they're supposed to look like anymore.

It kind of fell apart after this part. My end warps started getting even more slack for some reason, and one of them came untied.

I had a question about the end loops... should I just weave over both layers? Like in the next picture, I wasn't quite sure waht to do. You can see the other side of the end loop on the far left side.

what to do

Thanks for all your help and encouragement! The carpet warp worked really great! It didn't pill a lot, and it didn't shred either like the worsted weight dish cloth cotton I was using the first time. It only got really sticky at the very end.

 

Sat, 02/06/2010 - 14:55

bolivian warmi

I just LOVE the way you are documenting all this Tara! This is really great. I think you are doing very well. The band definitely looks better with less tension on it and your edges look just as they should (except for the last photo where the end warps got too slack). This is the way your edges will look with thick yarn. When you move on to finer stuff and wider bands, the look of the edges won't be as distracting.

I like how you are squeezing everything you possibly can out of your band! Usually by the time I reach my knots, I am ready to cut  my band off!! You could untie the knot and tie the warp tight around your loom bar or you could just weave that end warp doubled but it won't look good.

If I really want to weave almost to the very end of my warp, I put a needle through the end loops and lash the needle to my loom bar. I tie the end warps to the needle so that the knots are not in the way of my weaving.

I have just tied one warp here to show you. Imagne this is one of your end warps. All your warps will be around this needle and the needle gets lashed to your loom bar. You can use a piece of coat hanger wire-this is piano wire.

Another way to deal with slack end warps-or any warps that get slack for some reason, is to put a thin dowel or kebab skewer. chopstick etc under the slack warps and tie that to the loom bar.

Something to think about for the next band! I am glad the carpet warp worked for you. What did you end up using for your heddles?

Laverne

Sat, 02/06/2010 - 15:51

siseltikva (not verified)

Oh okay, great! Those are great ideas for the nearing the end of my piece. Oh, I was ready to cut it off lol by the time I got to the knots. It just got really hard to maneuver at the ends. :) And I did cut it off, right after that.

Throughout the weaving I did try to take up the extra slack with different sized dowels, but sometimes they didn't seem like they did enough. I guess that means the end warps were REALLY slack lol.

I hope its okay that I'm documenting on here! I do hope it helps somebody :) 

I just used the same carpet warp for the heddles, and it really turned out fine. I actually didn't think it would, but it was great. I just the same color as the warp yarn, so it wouldn't leave fibers of a different color on the warp, but if I'm going to cut the end off it probably wouldn't have mattered.

Do you think I should be beating harder? The ends of my warps look kind of "longer" than yours, if you know what I mean. Like the wefts of different color are farther apart on mine than on yours.

Thanks again for all your help!

Sat, 02/06/2010 - 16:27

bolivian warmi

Yep, I think a combination of a little less tension and harder beating will make your  weaving more ''dense''.

Fri, 11/19/2010 - 07:22

Bobbie2 (not verified)

Siseltikva, Thank you so much for sharing your first attempts at your backstrap weaving.  I just warped and tried my first attempt earlier this evening and was having all the same problems you were.  It's nice to know I am not alone and this will help me to solve my problems.