Weaving is the process of interlacing two sets of threads - warp (vertical) and weft   (horizontal) - at right angles to create fabric. A loom is typically used to hold the warp threads under tension, making it easier to insert the weft threads between them.


Weaving began with the intertwining of branches and plant fibers to make shelters, mats, and baskets, with woven textiles appearing roughly 30,000 years ago. Since then, the invention and continual improvement of looms have revolutionized textile production, making it easier to create complex patterns and more efficient to produce fabric.


Major loom development  milestones include:


  • Warp-weighted looms (c. 5000 BC): Simple vertical frame looms that use weights to maintain warp tension.
  • Drawlooms (c. 400 BC): The first looms to control individual warp threads mechanically.
  • Treadle looms (c. 1000 AD): Introduced foot pedals to lift groups of warp threads.
  • Jacquard looms (1804): Added punched cards to automatically control individual warp threads—an innovation that transformed textile design and laid the groundwork for modern computer programming.
  • Power looms (from 1785): Harnessed water, steam, or electricity to mechanize weaving.
  • Computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) (1970s): Enabled digital pattern creation and automated weaving.

Today, hand weavers create unique works that can be functional or artistic, traditional or contemporary. New materials, modern aesthetics, and fresh interpretations of time-honored techniques continue to expand the creative possibilities of weaving. Keep reading for your introduction to the world of weaving! Hint: Use the links above to jump to the sections you're most interested in.

Materials and Tools:

  • Beater: To pack down weft threads. You can use your fingers, a comb, a fork, a weighted, handheld beater, or the beater integral to your loom.
  • Loom: Anything that holds warp threads under tension, ranging from a forked stick or simple frame loom to floor looms and computerized Jacquard looms. 
  • Weft package: 
  • Butterflies are small hanks of yarn wound by hand and generally used for narrow warps and tapestry weaving.
  • Stick shuttles are flat sticks with notches at each end, so that yarn can be wound along the shuttle’s length. 
  • Boat shuttles have flat bottoms, an interior bobbin to hold the yarn, and a hole in the side of the shuttle to feed yarn out as the shuttle moves across the width of the loom. 
  • Yarn:
  • Warp yarn: Strong, smooth, non-stretchy yarns are best for beginners. 
  • Weft yarn: Anything that meets the requirements of your final project - soft for scarves, water-absorbing for towels, durable for outerwear, etc.

Terminology & Techniques:

  • Beat: To pack in the weft.
  • Bobbin: A spool that holds yarn in a boat shuttle.
  • Cartoon: A full-scale drawing or template typically placed behind the warp threads to show you where to place different colors for your tapestry.
  • Draft: A diagram (graph) that gives the instructions for a weave pattern, including the warp threading, weft treadling, the tie-up, and the drawdown.
  • Draw-down: A graphical representation of the fabric being woven.
  • Draw-in: The amount of pull-in at the selvedges. Ten per cent is a good starting estimate.
  • End: Each warp thread is an end. 
  • Fell: The forward edge of your weaving where your last pick has been placed.
  • Float: A warp or weft thread that passes over (floats over) more than one weft or warp thread at a time.
  • Heading: The first few picks of weaving, which equalize the spacing between warp ends. Generally woven with scrap yarn.
  • Heddle: A piece of string, wire, flat steel, or other material with a central eye that warp threads pass through. Heddles enable groups of warp threads to move up or down together.
  • Loom Parts: Here’s a good video tutorial describing the main components of a floor loom.
  • Pick (shot): Each weft row is a pick or a shot. 
  • Selvedge: The two woven edges of fabric - the left and right edges as you are weaving.
  • Sett: Number of warp ends per inch.
  • Shed: The space between upper and lower warp threads that the weft passes through.
  • Sleying: Drawing warp threads through the reed.
  • Tabby/ plain weave: The simplest weave pattern, where the weft goes over and under alternate warp threads.
  • Threading: Drawing warp threads through heddle eyes according to the pattern specified in the threading section of the draft.
  • Thrums: Unwoven warp yarn at the beginning and end of a warp.
  • Tie-up: Directions for connecting each treadle on a floor loom to the shafts it will raise or lower.
  • Treadling: Stepping on a treadle for each pick according to the sequence specified in the treadling section of the draft. 
  • Twill: A weave structure characterized by floats that align in diagonal lines in the woven fabric.
  • Warping (dressing): All of the actions involved in putting a warp on a loom.

Process:

This is the basic process for all looms:

  • Warp your loom. Depending on the type of loom you are using, this may be as simple as winding one thread around a frame or a multi-step process that is completed when each warp thread is secured at the warp and cloth beams, passing through a heddle and the reed.
  • Prepare weft butterflies or wind your weft yarn onto one or more shuttles.
  • Weave picks of scrap yarn until your warp threads are evenly spaced.
  • Weave following your draft (or cartoon for tapestry) until you can no longer insert additional weft picks.
  • Cut your fabric from the loom.
  • Stabilize the beginning and ending picks by adding a row of machine stitching or serging at each end or by tying groups of warp ends in knots.
  • Use a needle to fix mistakes or weave in ends, as necessary. 
  • Wet finish your fabric. This allows the yarns to “bloom,” stabilizing the cloth. Generally, this is a gentle hand wash followed by line drying. 

Loom Types:

  • Frame looms are simple, portable looms that do not have a mechanism for separating warp threads to create a shed. 
  • Integral looms become part of the finished work. Examples include forked branches, stones, CDs, hula hoops, embroidery hoops, and jars or boxes.
  • Peg looms are boards with one or more rows of holes, and wooden pegs that fit into the holes. Weft thread is wound around vertical warp threads, which are stretched over the pegs. Weaving sticks and straws are, essentially, peg looms.
  • Pin looms are frames with pins (or pegs) around the perimeter. Yarn is wrapped around the pins to create the warp, and a needle is used to weave weft yarn through the warp threads. Zoom looms and Turtle looms are two examples.
  • Rectangular and shaped frames have notches or pins to secure and evenly space warp threads. Cardboard looms and simple tapestry looms are two examples.
  • Simple looms can lift warp threads into at least two distinct sheds. 
  • The warp on backstrap looms is attached to a stationary object on one end and to a belt (backstrap) around the weaver’s body on the other end, so that the weaver can control the warp tension by leaning forward or backward. String heddles lift warp threads for plain weave, while optional pattern sticks selectively pick up warp threads for intricate patterns. 
  • Narrow looms are used to weave narrow, sturdy lengths of fabric for trim, tape, belts, and bands.
  • Inkle looms  are open frames with a series of pegs to hold warp threads, with one adjustable peg to control tension.  String heddles lift warp threads for plain weave, while complex patterns are created by manually selecting individual warp threads. 
  •  Band looms  are larger looms that sit on the floor. They use a heddle system to lift or lower the warp ends and often incorporate foot treadles.
  • Card (tablet) weaving is a technique that utilizes cards instead of heddles to create sheds. The cards, which can be used on any simple loom, are square, triangular, or hexagonal with holes near each corner (and possibly at the center) for warp threads to pass through. Sets of cards are turned in sequence to create patterns.
  • Rigid heddle looms employ a frame with alternating slots and holes that functions as both a reed and two shafts. Lifting or lowering the rigid heddle raises every other warp thread while keeping the warp threads evenly spaced.
  • Tapestry looms include heddles and a mechanism to produce two sheds. Most tapestry-specific looms are vertically oriented looms that hold the warp perpendicular to the floor.
  • Complex looms:
  • Multi-shaft looms have four or more shafts, enabling more complex weaving patterns. Usually, floor looms have a maximum of 12  shafts to keep the tie-ups and treadling manageable. Table looms can have up to 32 shafts, since with hand-operated levers, there are no tie-ups and you don’t have to worry about having enough treadles.
  • Drawlooms have two separate sets of shafts (harnesses). The ground harness is a standard set of shafts tied to treadles to create the base or ground cloth. The pattern harness is a set of shafts that are controlled by draw cords or levers. Drawlooms can weave virtually any design, and the weave pattern can be easily changed at any time.
  • Dobby looms have a specialized mechanism that enables shafts to be automatically selected - either by inserting pegs into a chain of bars (mechanical dobby) or by using computer software (electronic dobby). 
  • Jacquard looms enable control of individual warp threads. Whether mechanical or electronic, these looms enable the weaving of highly detailed and complex designs, including weaving photographs into the fabric.

FAQ's:

  • General:
  • How can I remember which way the warp and weft threads go? You have to be “warped” to weave, and the weft goes from “weft” to right.
  • What is meant by warp-faced, weft-faced, and balanced weaves? These terms describe the predominance of warp and weft yarns showing on the front of woven cloth.
  • What is tapestry? It is a type of weft-faced weaving where images are built up using  discontinuous weft threads. In other words, there are multiple wefts in a row, each woven only in its own section of the design.
  • Looms:
  • What type of loom should I start with? Many beginners start with a simple frame loom or rigid heddle loom because they’re easy to use and affordable. If you decide to purchase a larger or more complex loom, the right loom will depend on your budget, space constraints, and the projects you want to make. If possible, weave on different looms before making a purchase.
  • What are the three types of treadle looms? Looms are classified by the way sheds are created:
  • Jack looms have  "jacks" or levers below the shafts that pivot and push shafts up when a treadle is pressed.
  • Counterbalance looms use pulleys to hang shafts so that when a treddle is pressed, one or more shafts go up and the others go down.
  • Countermarch looms connect each shaft to two sets of levers, or "lamms". The upper set of lamms pulls the warp threads down, while the lower set pushes them up. 
  • Sometimes I hear “shaft”, sometimes I hear “harness”. What’s the difference? Technically, a shaft is a frame that holds heddles, and a harness is a set of shafts working together. Shaft is the correct term to use unless you are working with a drawloom. That said, you will probably hear both terms used interchangeably.
  • How many shafts do I need? You could weave for 100 years and never get bored with a four-shaft loom. So, it really depends on the complexity of the material you want to weave: If you want to weave complex twills, multiple layers, and block weaves you can do more with an eight (or more) harness loom.
  • Warping:
  • What do I know if a yarn is strong enough to use for warp? Use the warp snap test: Hold a single strand of yarn with your hands about 6” apart, then pull your hands apart with a quick snapping motion. If the yarn breaks, it is too weak to use for warp.
  • Should I warp my loom back to front or front to back? Back to front (winding on to the back beam before threading heddles and sleying the reed) will work for all warps. Front to back (sleying the reed, threading the heddles, then winding onto the back beam) is easier for sticky warps and for designing in the reed.
  • Should I leave the lease sticks in the warp while I weave? It depends. Leaving them in makes it easier to find broken warp ends and to tie a new warp onto your existing warp. But, take them out if you have a narrow warp and they are tipsy and frustrating, if they decrease your sheds, or it’s too hard to push them back as they approach the heddles. 
  • Weaving:
  • Help! I found a threading error! You can fix it! You can re-thread as required or use repair heddles.
  • Talk to me about warp tension. The goal is consistent tension across the width of your warp. If you have “smiling” or “frowning” sections along the fell, you have a tension problem. Temporarily hang a weight on that section at the back of the loom, and work on your winding on technique for the next warp. For more drastic problems, cut off your weaving and re-tie onto the front beam (with or without re-winding the warp on the back beam).
  • My selvedges aren’t even!  Check out this blog post for some good technique tips that should improve your selvedges.
  • How do I repair a broken warp threads? One end at a time. Here’s how.
  • I’ve made a mistake weaving. Now what? If you notice the mistake soon after it happens, you can unweave and re-weave. If it is too far back, fix it after your fabric is off the loom. Here’s how.

About This Resource:

This resource is intended to provide a broad overview of weaving - enough to get you started on your weaving journey. It is not meant to be a comprehensive tutorial or listing of resources.


Please email if you have any suggested corrections, updates, or improvements!