Comments

jordanj (not verified)

Are you going to do a plainweave with your backstrap loom? Is it hard to get (and maintain) the proper width? Is that the purpose of twining at the beginning? How will you handle the warp ends?

Jennifer

francorios (not verified)

Yes, I can plainweave. It takes some attention to keep the width consistent. Some people use a temple or stretcher, which I might do.

Twining the edge, then tying that twined edge to the loom bar gives me a finished edge before I start weaving.

Check out this blog article.

http://francosfiberadventure.blogspot.com/2009/09/twining-edge-on-backstrap-loom.html

Have a good day!

Karren K. Brito

I don't see a cross in your warp, did you make one?  I think I see your warp drooping because of the upright position, was there no way to make it with the sticks horizontal?

francorios (not verified)

There is a cross, I wound on the sticks using a figure 8 pattern. Maybe the sagging is hiding the cross. It's there, the sticks are only 1/4 inch thick so there is not a lot of angle to see.

It's sagging. I tried to keep the sagging even. I will adjust the warp when I get it horizontal and before weaving.

Have a good day!

Finished Length Unit
yards
Finished Width Unit
yards
Length Off Loom Unit
yards
Length on Loom Unit
yards
Notes

I want to make some more towels with cotton yarn. I use the thick Sugar N Creme and Peaches and Cream yarns. The towels are part of my apprenticeship as a weaver.

 

Above are the sticks I’ll be using for my backstrap loom. I plan to make two towels. The ends tied to the loom bars will be twined for a finished selvedge. I’ll weave halfway through and turn the loom around and weave the other half. Then I’ll cut in the middle. The towels will have three finished edges. The last edges will be hemstitched and fringed.

 

Using 24 inch hardwood sticks clamped to the chairs, the warp is wound at 56 inch. You can see a metal box that was jammed between the chair and table to keep the spacing constant. The tight continous warp wants to pull the chairs together. The sett will be 10 warp per inch. There is 6 inch of variegated pastel, then 4 inch of white in middle, and 6 inch more of pastel. The finished width will be 16 inch. And I put safety strings to hold the cross.

 

I’ll twine my piece tomorrow, so I just rolled up the warp with the flat sticks and put it in the bag. I love this part of backstrap weaving. I was actually going to use a rigid heddle loom, but my heddle is missing! It’s nice to have a backstrap loom as a backup loom!

Number of Shafts
2
Project Status
Warping
Sett Unit
epi
Width off Loom Unit
inches
Width on Loom Unit
inches