There are two primary ways to warp a rigid-heddle loom—direct and indirect—with lots of variations of each method. Before I embraced rigid-heddle weaving, there was just “warping”. Granted, there were still many variations, but primarily it involved using a board or pegs to wind the warp independently of the loom. In the rigid-heddle world, we ... Read more| Yarnworker
Welcome to the warped side of yarn! Yarnworker is a space for rigid heddle know-how and inspiration. Here you will find tips, techniques, patterns, and products that will make you a confident and more joyful weaver.| Yarnworker
I’ve been thinking a lot about drafts lately. As many of you know, I am in the process of writing a new guide to the wonderful world of weave structure with the rigid-heddle weaver in mind. It is humbling and overwhelming work and I am eternally grateful to the Yarnworker Patreon community for giving me ... Read more| Yarnworker
To get the cloth you want, the secret is in the sett. Sett is the spacing of the yarn in the rigid-heddle reed. To guesstimate a balanced sett, where you have the same number of warp ends as you will weft picks, conventional wisdom has the weaver wrapping yarn around a ruler for an inch, ... Read more| Yarnworker
Yarn selection and sett are at the heart of what makes woven cloth great. When pondering the question of sett, fabric design, and yarn substitution, an underused resource by rigid-heddle weavers is a sett chart. A sett chart is a list of yarns described in generic terms, their yardage, and a range of suggested setts. ... Read more| Yarnworker
If your weaving pattern calls for a rigid-heddle size you don't have, try modifing the threading of your rigid heddle to gives you more options.| Yarnworker
One of the challenges of writing a clear-eyed approach to structures for the rigid-heddle loom is that you can arrive at the same structure with many different setups. This is true of many looms, but especially true for the rigid-heddle. Your choice of setup can depend on your available equipment, heddle block style, and personal ... Read more| Yarnworker
Crafting content for weavers who, like me, weave on a rigid-heddle loom provides endless avenues for exploration. The weave-alongs are often an extension of my own weaving practice or perhaps my practice is a result of crafting content for a living. Who can say which drives which. Over the past year, I’ve done a lot ... Read more| Yarnworker
After a two year hiatus, the public weave-alongs are back. On February 14, we kicked off a clasped warp and weft table set in twill or plain weave project bonanza in our new home YarnworkerU. The name is both a play on words on educational spaces and to make a nod to the personal nature ... Read more| Yarnworker
I haven’t felt very bloggish lately. Perhaps it is the nature of school’s out for summer feelings. Now that I’m heading back into the classroom, I’m feeling the pull, although I can’t for the life of me think of what to say. Although there are things happening here at Yarnworker central, none of it seems ... Read more The post Blog Blocked, But Still Here appeared first on Yarnworker.| Yarnworker
There has been some chat in the Yarnworker Patreon community about how to visualize what happens when you lift or lower heddles or engage pick-up stick and heddle rods when using multiple heddles. Because of the all-in-one nature of the magical rigid-heddle that determines sett as well as the order of the ends, the yarns ... Read more The post How Ends Travel in Multiple Heddles to Form Sheds appeared first on Yarnworker.| Yarnworker
When you first learn to thread two heddles, chances are you learned the standard threading first. This threading can be organized in many different ways to create the conditions for lots of weave structures: plain weave, Hopsack, lace, twill, doubleweave, and Summer and Winter. This setup gives you the ability to manage independently, or in ... Read more The post Standard Two-Heddle Threading appeared first on Yarnworker.| Yarnworker
I was drawn to the rigid-heddle world because it didn’t have as much formality surrounding it as the shaft-loom world. It seems like this was a loom full of pure potential. Most of the creations were based on how to manipulate the threads regardless of their named interlacements. To me this is more freeing. I ... Read more The post What is a Structure and Why Do We Name Them So? appeared first on Yarnworker.| Yarnworker
There is a saying that life is short, but the days and nights are long. How is it that we can feel like some days will never end, but in a blink of an eye we are rolling into a new season, a new year, a new decade? Time, and how we spend it, is ... Read more The post What 2024 Has in Store appeared first on Yarnworker.| Yarnworker
Three heddles provide a way to translate structures requiring 4 threading positions, or 4 shafts to the rigid-heddle loom. Essentially, a draft is telling you what kind of sheds you need and in what order to weave them. Sheds are created by the threading order and how you lift or lower the warp ends to ... Read more The post Translating Shafts to Sheds appeared first on Yarnworker.| Yarnworker
My standard advice for managing selvedges is, whenever possible, place selvedges in a slot. This puts less strain on the selvedge threads and allows you more freedom to pick them up with your shuttle. If necessary, you can weight them using an S-hook or similar object. By placing the ends in a slot, you are ... Read more The post Floating Selvedges and the Rigid-Heddle Loom appeared first on Yarnworker.| Yarnworker
At the beginning of the year, I wrote a post about the four quadrants of a draft. It is valuable to wrap your head around what each quadrant is communicating before you start digging into the details. Most drafts aren’t written for rigid-heddle weavers, they are written for looms that have shafts, and even then ... Read more| Yarnworker
A few weeks ago, a member of the school’s Patreon community posted this question: “I’m excited about the latest study group. At the same time, I’m learning about shaft looms, and I’m wondering how your brain works, knowing both systems. Do you think about rigid heddle and shaft looms in separate compartments, like the way ... Read more| Yarnworker
As you explore more weave structures and dive deeper into sett, you will begin to hear the word “density” a lot. This can relate to how you calculate the sett or how you think about the relationships between structure and your materials. Note: This blog post was updated in August 2023 to clarify the different ... Read more| Yarnworker
