Lesson 1: Introduction to Weaving, Making a Book Loom #

Before we get into all the technical lingo, the best way to ground yourself in weaving is to do some weaving. In the video below, Marianne Fairbanks walks you though the process of making a loom using items you probably have around you, a book, tape, some sticks, knife and fork, etc.

We like to start with this video because it is accessible but also because it uses a stick and string heddles to raise different groups of threads for weaving. A stick then creates more space through the selected and unselected strings to create a “shed” - a space between raised and lowered threads. This is a similar action that is used in all looms and it helps you come to understand a few key concepts:

1. how a shed makes weaving a bit faster than manually moving a yarn in and out of tensioned warps.
2. how you need some unwoven space around the shed to create an opening big enough to be useful.
3. how the relationships between warp and weft yarns shape the quality of the cloth. If the warp is too far spaced out, all you’ll see if the weft. If the warp is too close, all you’ll see if the warp.

Try it for yourself and get playful. Try colors, textures, things that you might not think of as “yarn” but can be inserted into a shed. Can you insert pasta, rope, old necklaces, hair? What happens if you don’t weave all the way across, but just in different sections, how does the cloth take shape. Ask yourself, what else could you make a loom out of?