Warp weighted loom

Introduction

Most cultures have relied on woven cloth as the main source of clothing. Until fairly recently, most cloth in Europe has been woven using simple, hand operated looms. Since loom weights are often made of clay or stone, most of the archaeological evidence has been for the warp weighted loom. Other kinds of loom exist for weaving cloth but these seldom leave such hard evidence of their existence.

This section of the website is intended to give a brief introduction to the warp weighted loom. A full description would require a rather large book!

The most common type of warp weighted loom is designed to lean against a wall. Warp threads hang from a top beam and tension is provided by loom weights.

This loom is made of planks of oak. The weights are doughnut shaped and are typical of anglo Saxon finds.

Warping the loom

Setting up the loom is actually the most difficult and time consuming part of the process. It starts with preparing the warp threads. There are many ways of doing this but a common method is to start with a tablet woven heading border. This can be plain as in the example below or decorated. In normal tablet weaving, the weft simply passes from side to side and is drawn tight. When weaving a heading border, loops of the weft are pulled through the tablet weaving and passed around a post.

Tablet weaving continues until the length of tablet weaving is equal to the desired width of the cloth. The header band is then fastened to the cloth beam of the loom. I prefer to stitch the header band to a broom handle, then to tie the latter onto the cloth beam.

The simplest type of weaving is tabby or 1/1. Each weft thread goes over one warp thread and under the next. To achieve this, the warp threads are divided into two groups. Odd numbered warp threads go in front of the shed bar. These will remain in the same place while the cloth is woven. The even numbered threads go behind it and hang vertically. These threads will move alternately in front of the static threads then back again as weaving progresses. Groups of threads are then tied to loom weights to give them sufficient tension.

The warp threads are spread out either by wrapping them around a thin rod (as above) or by chaining by means of finger loop braiding (below), in both cases near the bottom of the loom.

The next step is to fasten the back threads to the heddle rod by means of heddles. 

 We prefer to use individual heddles. These are a lenhth of linen roughly twice the distance between the heddle rod and the rear warp threads. Loop one end over the heddle rod and pass between two of the front warp threads. Go around a rear warp thread then back between the same pair of front warp threads before looping the other end over the heddle rod.Some weavers prefer to use a continuous heddle

Weaving

Weaving can now begin. The weft thread goes in the space between the front and back threads (the natural shed). The heddle rod is then raised onto the heddle rests, bringing all the back threads to the front. This forms a second shed and the warp is passed through again. When the heddle rod is lowered back to its starting position, this brings the warp threads back to their original position. Weaving progresses by alternately raising and lowering the heddle rod. The a weft passes through every time.

There is a tendency for the cloth to “pull in” as weaving progresses so that it gradually (or sometimes very quickly!) becomes narrower. There are various strategies to avoid this.

Selvedges

The selvedges are the edges of the woven cloth. As the weft threads are continuous, there is no danger of the cloth fraying. Weaving as described above produces a simple selvedge. A simple selvedge can be rather wobbly and is no help in preventing the cloth gradually becoming narrower.

We experimented with a reinforced selvedge. This involves doubling the warp threads at each edge of the cloth. The selvedge of the woven cloth is then tied to the sides of the loom at intervals. While this was partially successful, the edge was not straight. This piece is in basket weave with both warp and weft threads in pairs.

We were more successful with a tablet woven selvedge. As tablet weaving is roughly twice as thick as conventional weaving, the selvedge is stronger than a simple selvedge. At first we tried fastening the woven selvedge to the sides of the loom and this was partially successful. However, tying the unwoven warp threads loosely to the sides of the loom worked much better. Aside from reducing the amount of “pull in,” it prevented the warp threads from the cloth becoming tangled with those of the tablet woven selvedge.

In addition to producing a superior selvedge, tablet weaving has the advantage of producing complex patterns.

Finishing off

When weaving has progressed as far as possible, you will be left with between 12 and 18 inches of warp threads that cannot be woven, producing a natural fringe. A simple method of finishing off the cloth is to group adjacent threads together and make an overhand knot.

Surviving Iron age cloaks recovered from peat bogs are much more sophisticated. The remaining warp threads are used as weft for yet more tablet weaving, in some cases requiring up to 300 tablets.

This much simpler version has been finished off in a similar way, followed by overhand knots.