Working with a peg loom

My husband recently made me a gorgeous peg loom with two different sizes of pegs, and I thought I'd share what I've learned about the basics of weaving on a peg loom.

Overall design
1. Decide if you want a bulky piece (large holes) or a less bulky piece (small holes).
2. Place pegs in the holes approximately as wide as you’d like the piece you are weaving to be. The first time, just use some of the pegs, to get an idea how peg weaving works.

Warp  

3. The warp is the yarn that runs vertically in your weaving. It needs to be strong because the weft (what weaves horizontally) will be pushed down the warp many times during the weaving, and large weavings can become heavy. Carpet warp is narrow, but very strong and durable. Some people use crochet cotton. When you’re done weaving, the warp will normally only show at the ends, as a fringe.

4. Decide how long you want your weaving to be when it’s finished. The rule of thumb is to make the warp 3-4 times as long as that. This gives you enough to work with as the warp threads are doubled (threaded through the pegs and hanging down on both sides), and when you finish the weaving, possibly with a fringe. It can be frustrating when you don’t have enough warp to work with. Experience will teach you how much works best for you, but start with 3-4 times the length you want for now. For your first sampler, you may want to make your warp threads only a yard or two long, so you are learning the process of weaving, not the process of measuring and handling long warps. See “For more information” below for information about creating long warps.

5. Take out one of the pegs at one end of the loom (you’ll work across the row). Push the threading tool loop through hole in the peg, stick one end of the warp through the loop and pull the loop back through the peg. Even out the warp tails so the tails are both about the same length, then put the peg back in the hole. (At this point you can put down the threading tool.) With the threaded peg, the end with the warp should be closest to the bottom. Now repeat all across the row of pegs.

6. Tie the warp threads together into a loose knot that’s 8 to 10 inches below the pegs. Make this a knot that you will be able to untie easily later. The knot helps keep the warps from becoming tangled, and can also be helpful if you drop the loom and pegs fall out. It also helps keep the weaving from loosening up too much as you are weaving.

Weft
7. The weft is the yarn that runs horizontally, and which you will be weaving through the pegs. Unlike the warp, the weft can be almost any yarn. You also can use lots of different yarns in one piece, playing around with color and texture.

Weaving
8. You can work on a table, or on your lap. I like sitting in an easy chair and rest the loom on the arms of the chair. If you plan a very large weaving that will become heavy, you may want to clamp the ends of the loom onto a table.

9. Tie one end of the weft to a peg at one end and leave a tail (you can use a yarn needle to weave this in when you are done). Then start weaving across the pegs, in front of a peg, in back of the next peg, in front of the next peg, in back of the next peg. When you reach the end of the row, be sure to go around that peg and start back in the opposite direction. Press the yarn down to the bottom of the peg; if the weaving feels too loose, gently pull the end to tighten it up.

10. Some people don’t like to use knots, and just overlap yarns when they start using a different color yarn. I like to use knots but make sure I keep them at the back where they won’t show.

11. When you have several inches of weaving on the pegs, you are going to need to move this down onto the warp below so there is room for you to weave some more.

12. Lift out the right-most peg if you’re right-handed (the left-most peg if you’re left-handed) and press the weaving that’s on the peg down the warp several inches so it’s completely off the peg. Replace the peg back into its hole. Repeat across the row. At first, it will look like there is a big gap between the weaving that’s below the pegs and what’s on the pegs, but as you repeat this process, the weaving comes together.

13. As the weaving gets close to the knot that you tied in the warp threads, untie the knot and tie another one farther down the warp.

14. You can change yarns and colors, creating all sorts of effects. See “For More Information” for a tapestry book that will give you good ideas to try.

Finishing
15. When the weaving piece is about as long as you want it, and you have moved all the weaving off the pegs and onto the warp, pull out the pegs again, and press all the weaving further down the warp until you have 6 or more inches of warp at the top of the weaving; if you’re going to want a fringe, have the warp that’s left be the length of the fringe plus an inch for knotting. It’s helpful to work on a table so you have a flat surface to work on. Tighten the weaving by pressing it towards the center of the piece while holding onto the warp threads at both ends of the weaving piece.

16. The easiest way to finish your weaving is to tie the warp threads from two different pegs together in an overhand knot and leave the remainder as fringe. If you don’t tie warp threads from different pegs together in some way, the weaving will come out. If you don’t want a fringe, knot the warp threads, then use a yarn needle to weave the warp threads back into the weaving.

17. Even up the fringes with scissors. Using a yarn needle, work with the yarn ends where you started and ended a color; weave these into the piece in at least two different directions to help lock them in.

18. You may want to wet-finish your weaving. How you do this depends on the yarn content. For example, most wools can “full” (the fibers spread out) and even “felt” (becomes a solid sheet which can’t be unwoven). Some fibers can shrink. If the care instructions for a yarn say “hand wash in cold water, dry flat” then that’s how you should wash it.

19. There are whole books written about finishing – both about different kinds of fringes/finishing, and wet-finishing woven pieces.

For more information:
Measuring a long warp: When you have a lot of warp threads and they are long, it helps to measure between warping pegs. These can be warping pegs that you buy, but people have also used clamps set the length of the warp apart, or chair legs of upturned chairs, or pieces of wood stuck in two separate kitchen drawers. For more ideas for “winding the warp,” read a book about weaving such as Learning to Weave by Deborah Chandler. This is available in libraries (and interlibrary loan if your library doesn’t have it), as well as from the many used book sources on the internet.

Become a member of Ravelry.com http://www.ravelry.com and become a member of the Pegs & Sticks forum there http://www.ravelry.com/groups/pegs--sticks (you have to be a Ravelry member for this link to work). Ravelry is free and the community has many resources – including a lot of people who can answer your questions, and make suggestions. In fact, Ravelry has many resources for weavers, knitters, spinners, and other fiber-related crafts. Definitely worth a look.

The internet has websites, blogs, and videos; just Google “winding the warp,” “tapestry weaving,” “weaving finishing,” and so on to find further information.

For more ideas of weaving techniques with your peg loom, see a book about tapestry weaving techniques, like Tapestry Weaving by Kirsten Glasbrook

For more ideas about fringes and other finishes, see a book like Finishing Touches for the Handweaver by Virginia West.

Experimenting with ribbon and art yarns

I've been playing with "art" yarns - those that aren't conventional but have interesting texture, like ribbon yarns, eyelash yarns, boucle, and a mill-end that has a narrow filament with tiny flags every half inch.

I've been wanting to find a way to effectively showcase these yarns. Partly because I used the mill-end with the flags as a stripe in a warp - which worked fine as warp (strong and not stretchy), but it just disappeared into the warp - I will have to use twice as much for it to have the impact that I want. (Have used eyelash yarn as warp and won't do that again any time soon - it looks good, but. Every. Single. Shed. has to be cleared for Every. Single. Pick. Arggh!)

I had seen images of weft sticking out to the side to create a side fringe, and then saw it again in a book which brought the idea back to the surface(Woven to Wear). I've been fascinated with warp loops ever since I saw a video of an ancient Scandinavian loom which was initially warped by the creation of long weft loops. (First, a tape is created using a backstrap style loom, but as the weft is woven, a long loop is added on one side with each pass; the tape is then hung at the top of a wall loom and the weft loops in the tape become the warp to be woven on the wall loom.)

Anyway, I've found these loops interesting for a long time. Tried out a couple of different things. First, I wanted to see how the different "yarns" would look sticking out to the side. Also, I was curious to see how far out the weft should stick out, so I made it two inches on one side and one inch on the other.

I wanted a plain weft to alternate with the "art" yarn to 1) help it stand out, and 2) help lock it in, so the weft loops don't pull out. I experimented with thicker and thinner alternate wefts - decided that this will take more sampling, because it depends on the "art" yarn. Some get lost next to a thicker weft while others are enhanced by it.

It's a good idea to have a guide to help you keep the loops consistent, so you have a guide line of sorts on the loom that's just for the loops; the guide line is off to the side of the regular warp separated by the number of inches wide you want the loop to be. You weave the loops around the guide lines. First I tried guide lines made out of warp. I thought these were a bit stretchy, and I hated wasting the warp. Then I tried monofilament line (fishing line), since it doesn't stretch. But it's 1) not visible, and 2) doesn't stay where it's needed. I've decided I need the guide lines since they help me keep the loops consistent, and help me keep the two wefts managed, but no more monofilament. I may add extra weight just for these warp threads, like with a floating selvedge.

This is more time-consuming than conventional weaving. You need to manage two shuttles (and carefully make sure one doesn't get wrapped around the guide lines while the other one does), but you also need to manage going over (and under) the guide lines at the right times. You also have to lock in the "art" weft, so the selvedges take extra work, too. Once you develop a rhythm it's fine, but it's still quite a bit slower. Here's a scarf I wove with the "art" yarn with the multi-colored flags.

The eyelash yarn looks wonderful, both in the loops and with the other weft. The ribbon yarn - which I was expecting to be great - looked terrible. The loops were very ordinary-looking, some were so slippery that they didn't stay locked in, and the ribbon didn't look good with the other weft next to it. The ribbons are spectacular as warp, I know from other projects, so perhaps that's where I'll use them.

My mind is buzzing with ideas for scarves now.