A few weeks ago, Fern posted a call looking for volunteers at her studio, and I instantly jumped at the opportunity. If you can imagine a “pick me” moment, complete with hand straight up in the air, that was pretty much me. Thankfully, Fern welcomed me into her studio, and I’ve loved learning from her since that time.
- Appropriate loom
- Appropriate warp
- Heddle/reed hook
Tutorial by Fern at Fern’s School of Craft
Alternative: Tutorial by Paivi at All Fiber Arts
When I got to the studio, Fern asked me what I would want to work on. When I told her that I was interested in learning more about weaving, she decided that she would talk me through warping a loom. If you recall, the warp refers to the vertical strands attached to the loom, while the weft are the horizontal strands worked back and forth. Fern had a prepared warp chain ready to go, so we sat down at the loom and got started.
For this particular project, we decided to warp front to back. This means that the warp is attached to the front beam, and it has to be brought through the reed first. If you are like me, and still working on weaving terminology, the reed is the grate-like screen that sits just behind the beater. Each strand of the warp has to be pulled through one space, also known as a dent, on the reed. Here, having a reed hook really helps with getting the warp through each dent.
As far as I can tell, this isn’t a hard step, it’s just time consuming. For this project, there were 312 strands in the warp, so it just took time to pull each one through the heddle. It definitely gave me a deeper appreciation for all the prep Fern had to do before our rug-weaving workshops! I’m so excited to keep learning from Fern, and will do my best to keep you updated on this new aspect to my weaving journey.
Until next time, happy crafting!