Weaving for beginners

Loom types compared

Looms differ in one main respect: how many independent sheds they can open, which decides what structures you can weave. A loom with one shed weaves plain weave. Four shafts opens up twills, and eight opens up most of the historical repertoire. The second difference is whether the loom holds a long warp on a beam, which decides whether you can make cloth or only panels.

A note on width. Loom width is weaving width, and it is the one specification people wish they had bought bigger. A 40 cm rigid heddle makes scarves and tea towels. A 60 cm one makes those plus shawls, cushion covers and yardage you can actually cut a garment from. The wider loom is no harder to use — it is only a longer reach.

Browse looms, the weaving shelf, and needles and shuttles to go with them.

The vocabulary

Weaving has more jargon than most crafts and almost all of it is load-bearing — pattern instructions are unreadable without it. This is the working set.

Warp

The threads held under tension, running the length of the cloth. You commit to the warp before you weave a single pick, and you cannot change your mind about it — hence the saying that the warp is what you are stuck with.

Weft

The threads woven across, over and under the warp. Weft goes left and right; warp runs the length. This is where you get to change colour, texture and your mind.

Shed

The V-shaped gap opened between raised and lowered warp threads. The shuttle passes through it. A loom is essentially a machine for making a shed conveniently.

Heddle

The loop, slot or hole that controls one warp thread. A rigid heddle is a single slotted board doing this for all of them at once, which is why it also spaces the warp.

Sett (EPI)

Warp ends per inch. The most consequential number in weaving: it decides whether your cloth is stiff board, balanced fabric, or a loose net.

Pick

One single pass of the weft across the warp. Rows in weaving are counted in picks.

Beat

Pressing each pick into place against the woven cloth. How hard and how consistently you beat changes the density and the whole character of the fabric.

Fell line

The leading edge of the woven cloth — the boundary you are advancing.

Selvedge

The self-finished side edge where the weft turns. Neat selvedges are the visible sign of a competent weaver, and the last thing to come good.

Draw-in

The warp pulling narrower than it was set, because the weft is being tensioned as it turns at the edges. Expect and plan for it.

Take-up

The cloth shortening compared with the warp measured out, because the weft bends around the warp. Allow roughly 10%.

Loom waste

The warp at each end that cannot be woven, because it is tied to the beams or held in the heddle. Typically 45–90 cm on a rigid heddle, and it must be in your maths.

Warp and weft in practice

The distinction is not just directional — the two threads live completely different lives, and that governs what you can use for each.

• The warp is under tension for the whole project and gets abraded by the heddle on every single shed change. Over a scarf that is thousands of passes. It has to be strong and smooth.
• The weft is under no tension at all. It just lies there being bent around the warp. So it can be anything: fuzzy, delicate, handspun, uneven, novelty, torn fabric strips, raffia, sari silk ribbon.
• The warp is fixed; the weft is free. You choose warp colours once, before weaving. Weft colour changes whenever you like, which is where nearly all the design freedom lives.

The balance between them decides the character of the cloth:

• Balanced weave — roughly equal warp and weft visible, and the sett suits the yarn. This is cloth: scarves, towels, fabric.
• Weft-faced — an open sett with the weft beaten hard so it covers the warp entirely. This is tapestry and rug weaving, where the weft carries the whole image.
• Warp-faced — a very close sett so the warp hides the weft. This is inkle bands, straps and belts, where the warp threading is the pattern.

Deciding which of these three you are making before you sett the warp is the difference between a project that works and one that fights you the whole way.

Choosing a sett

Sett — ends per inch — is the decision that most affects the finished cloth, and the one beginners have least intuition for. Set too open and the fabric is a sloppy net that will not hold together. Set too close and it becomes stiff board, takes twice as long to weave, and the warp threads abrade each other and break.

The wraps-per-inch method

For any yarn not on a chart: wrap it snugly around a ruler for exactly one inch, with the wraps touching but not compressed, and count them. That is your WPI. For a balanced plain weave, start at roughly half the WPI and adjust from there. For weft-faced work, halve it again. For warp-faced, go close to full WPI.

In practice most weavers sett a little closer than the half-WPI rule suggests, and rigid heddles only come in fixed dents anyway, so here is what people actually use:

If you own one heddle, own an 8 dent. It handles DK and worsted, which is where most accessible yarn lives, and those are the weights that weave up fast enough to keep a beginner interested.

Which yarn for warp, which for weft

Warp: strong, smooth, low stretch

There is a simple test. Hold about 30 cm of the yarn between your hands and snap it hard. If it breaks easily, it will break on the loom — and a broken warp thread mid-project is a genuine repair job rather than an inconvenience.

• Good warp: 8/2 cotton (the classic beginner choice — cheap, strong, forgiving), cotton perle, linen, firm plied wool, worsted-spun wool.
• Risky warp: loosely spun singles, which pill and pull apart under tension; mohair and anything fuzzy, which sticks to its neighbours so the shed will not open cleanly; superwash wool, which stretches unevenly.
• Bad warp: stretchy acrylic, novelty and boucle yarn, chenille, anything with slubs big enough to jam the heddle.

Weft: whatever you like

The weft is under no tension, so this is where the interesting materials go. Handspun, uneven, delicate, thick-and-thin, torn fabric strips for rag weaving, raffia for baskets and placemats, recycled sari silk ribbon for texture. The only real constraint is that it should suit the sett — a weft much thicker than the warp will fill the cloth quickly and push it toward weft-faced.

Shop cotton yarn for warp, wool for warm cloth, or sari silk and raffia for texture in the weft.

Warp maths for a first scarf

This is the part that looks intimidating and is actually just four additions. Worked example: a 20 cm wide, 150 cm long scarf, worsted weight wool, 8 dent heddle, 15 cm fringe at each end.

Number of ends

Finished width in inches × sett. 20 cm is about 8 in, so 8 × 8 EPI = 64 ends. Add a little for draw-in and warp slightly wider than the finished width — call it 70 ends, or 8¾ in on the loom.

Length of each end

• Finished length: 150 cm
• Take-up, about 10%: +15 cm
• Fringe, 15 cm at each end: +30 cm
• Loom waste (rigid heddle, tie-on at both ends and warp trapped in the heddle): +60 cm
• Total: 255 cm per end, so call it 2.6 m.

Total yarn

• Warp: 70 ends × 2.6 m = 182 m
• Weft: for a balanced plain weave, near enough the same length of cloth at a narrower width — roughly 150 m
• Total: about 330 m. Buy 400 m. Running out of warp is unrecoverable, and running out of weft means a colour change you did not plan.

The mistake to avoid: forgetting loom waste. It is 45–90 cm you will never weave, on every single warp, and on a short project it can be a third of the yarn. It is also the reason experienced weavers put several projects on one long warp rather than warping repeatedly.

Weaving it, step by step

1. Direct warp. Clamp a warping peg at your calculated warp length from the loom. Thread loops of yarn through the heddle slots only, from the back beam round the peg and back, until you have your ends. This is the fast rigid-heddle method and it is why the loom is a good beginner choice — no warping board, no counting cross.
2. Wind on. Wind the warp onto the back beam under even tension, sliding packing paper or thin sticks between the layers. The packing is not optional; without it the layers bite into each other and the tension goes uneven halfway through the project.
3. Thread the holes. Move one thread from each slot into the hole beside it. Now half the threads are in slots and half in holes, which is what lets the heddle raise one set and lower the other — that is your two sheds.
4. Tie on to the front. Small even bundles onto the front apron rod. Then adjust: pluck across the warp like a harp and listen. Uneven tension is the root cause of most weaving problems, and it is far easier to fix now than to weave around later.
5. Weave a header. A few picks of scrap yarn to spread the warp from its tied bundles out to an even width. Discard it later.
6. Weave. Open the shed, pass the shuttle, lay the weft in at a slight angle or in gentle arcs rather than pulling it straight across, change the shed, then beat. Beating with the shed changed gives a more even result than beating into an open shed.
7. Beat consistently, not hard. Consistency is everything. A firm beat for ten minutes and a gentle one for the next ten produces visible stripes of different density that no amount of finishing will remove.
8. Advance and check. Every few centimetres, measure the width. If it is narrowing, you are drawing in — give the weft more angle.

On selvedges: they will be untidy for your first metre and there is no shortcut. The two habits that help most are never tugging the shuttle yarn after a pick, and keeping your hands in the same place at each turn so the tension is at least consistent.

Finishing and wet finishing

Cloth off the loom is not finished cloth. It is a grid of threads holding position by tension, and it feels papery and stiff. Wet finishing — washing it — is what turns it into fabric. This surprises everyone the first time and it is the single biggest improvement your first project will get.

1. Secure the ends before cutting. A few picks of waste yarn, a line of machine stitching, or knotted groups. Cut the warp off the loom leaving the fringe length you planned.
2. Deal with the fringe. Twisted fringe lasts far longer than knotted; hemstitching while still on the loom is neater again and avoids a fringe entirely if you would rather hem.
3. Wash it. Warm water and a little wool wash for wool, agitating gently. Cotton and linen can take a warmer, more vigorous wash — linen in particular improves enormously and wants some rough handling.
4. Expect shrinkage. 5–10% in both directions is normal, more for loosely woven wool that felts slightly. This is why towels are woven longer than you want them.
5. Press while damp. A hot iron on damp cotton or linen sets the cloth beautifully. Wool wants steam and a light hand rather than pressure.

What went wrong

Quick answers

What is the difference between warp and weft?

Warp threads run the length of the cloth and are held under tension. Weft threads are woven across them. Weft goes left and right; warp runs the length. Warp is fixed before you weave; weft is where you change colour and texture freely.

What loom should I buy as a beginner?

A rigid heddle loom 40–60 cm wide with an 8 dent heddle. It warps quickly, holds a long warp, and makes real cloth. Buy a frame loom instead if you specifically want tapestry and wall hangings. Browse looms.

What does EPI mean?

Ends per inch — how many warp threads sit in each inch of width, also called the sett. It is the most consequential number in a weaving project, because it decides whether the cloth comes out as fabric, board or net.

Can I use knitting yarn for weaving?

For weft, almost any of it. For warp, only the strong smooth ones — firm plied wool, cotton, linen. Snap-test a 30 cm length: if it breaks easily it will break on the loom. 8/2 cotton is the classic beginner warp.

How much yarn do I need for a woven scarf?

About 330 m total for a 20 × 150 cm scarf at 8 EPI in worsted — roughly 180 m warp and 150 m weft. Buy 400 m. Remember loom waste of 45–90 cm per end, which is the figure people leave out.

Why are my selvedges messy?

The weft is being pulled tight as it turns. Lay each pick into the shed at an angle or in gentle arcs so there is enough length to bend around the warp before you beat. Selvedges are the last skill to arrive; everyone’s first metre is untidy.

Do I have to wash my weaving?

Yes. Wet finishing is what turns a tensioned grid of threads into fabric — the yarns bloom, relax and lock together, and the cloth gains drape. Expect 5–10% shrinkage. Skipping it is why some first projects feel like cardboard.

Can you weave fabric to sew with?

Yes, and it is one of the best reasons to buy a wider loom. Handwoven cloth frays readily, so finish every cut edge as soon as it is cut, choose patterns with simple straight seams, and allow generous seam allowances. Understanding fabric specs →