Tips & Tricks

Have you ever woven a cloth that has a significant difference in draw-in between the Plain Weave hem versus the weave structure that is the primary focus of your piece? A great example of this is Waffle Weave. The pockets that make the final piece so squishy and absorbent can have a significant draw-in rate that makes managing a Plain Weave hem challenging. In this blog post, Kristina Nichols offers tips, tricks, and a step-by-step tutorial of how to accommodate for this differential to achieve a beautifully finished piece.

The Clasped Warp technique is a dynamic way to add color play and vertical patterning to Plain Weave on a rigid heddle loom. By interlinking warp yarns at selected points, you create a warp in which one yarn dominates on one end of the loom and the other on the opposite end. In this blog post, Carolyn Heacock offers inspirational design suggestions and a step-by-step tutorial for exploring Clasped Weft on rigid heddle.

Log Cabin is a striking yet approachable weave structure—it looks complex, but it’s surprisingly easy to master. Belonging to the family of Color-and-Weave techniques which creates visual patterns by placing warp and weft colors in specific orders, both multi-shaft and rigid heddle looms are suitable for Log Cabin weavings. In this blog post, Carolyn Heacock provides an overview of how to get started with Log Cabin weaving. 

Weaving is a slow craft, and many dedicated weavers embrace that pace. Still, efficiency has its appeal, especially for multi-shaft weavers. One way to streamline the process is by tying a new warp onto an existing one. In this blog post, Carolyn Heacock provides her step-by-step guide to tying a new warp onto an existing one. 

In this post, Christine shares her approach for managing frequent color changes at the selvedge, and changing selvedge thread colors when changing weft colors.

Framing a woven tapestry presents a unique challenge with seemingly infinite possibilities. To start you on your framing journey, weaver Olga Owczarek has provided a collection of tips, tricks, and a few ideas to consider before diving into weaving.

Name Drafting is a method of incorporating a name or phrase into a weaving pattern such that it creates a unique graphic. There are many ways to name-draft, all of which serve as a tool to assist the weaver in the design process and make the draft uniquely theirs. In this blog post, Penny Lacroix provides step-by-step instructions for how she has used Name Drafting in her designs.

Whether you’re tidying up your studio, making room for a new loom, moving, or recovering from a moth incident, there comes a time when every weaver needs to organize their stash. It can be a daunting task, but is well worth the work. Here are a few tips for organizing your studio so that it is functional and inspiring. 

Color selection can be an exciting, yet sometimes overwhelming part of planning a weaving project. While traditional color theory is very helpful in understanding color relationships, you can get started experimentally designing without having all these concepts in your back pocket. In this blog post, Christine Novotny shares a few tips for how she creates fresh and inspired palettes by exploring unusual color combinations with Palette Scout.

A robust yarn stash makes experimenting with a wide range of yarns easy to do, but it takes time to grow organically. If you’re a new weaver eager to have more cones and skeins on your shelf, thrifting and sourcing pre-owned yarn can be a smart and affordable way to grow your stash. This blog post provides suggestions of places to look for pre-owned yarns, and things to keep in mind before bringing them home. 

In this blog post, Karla Stille explores one possible adaptation of her Endless Options Mug Rugs. By winding a longer warp and re-sleying the loom, weavers can explore weaving a modified Rep-Weave table runner on the same warp as their mugs.