Weaving for Your Home
By: Melissa Ludden Hankens / June 2010
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the afternoon. I decided that a pair of panels covering two-thirds of the window would be a good solution.
Since I wanted my finished curtain to measure 36” long, I added 5” total for hems at the top and bottom (I wanted ample room for a curtain rod), 4” for take-up, 3” for shrinkage and 17” for loom waste. Since my plan was to make two panels, I doubled the sum of the finished length plus hems, take-up and shrinkage, then added my loom waste to come up with a warp length of 113”.
I wanted a finished width of 17” per panel so that I would have nice full curtains. I added 3” for shrinkage and draw-in, which meant warping my 20” Flip rigid heddle loom its full width.
Using two heddles is fairly straightforward. Jane Patrick has written excellent instructions that can be found in the Schacht Winter 2007 Newsletter (http://schachtspindle.com/Newsletters/PDF/
Newsletter2007Winter.pdf). With a sett of 16 epi multiplied by my weaving width of 20”, I needed a total of 320 ends, times my warp length of 113” = just over 1,000 yards of yarn for my warp.
For the weft, a balanced weave of 16 ppi times the 20” weaving width (22” per pick) = 352” of weft yarn needed per inch woven. Since I was weaving two 48” panels, the total amount of weft yarn needed was about 940 yards.
To add one small layer of complexity to the project, I decided that I wanted a subtle pick-up pattern to run across the bottom of each curtain. To ensure that the patterning was woven in the same place on each panel, I cut two measuring strings of 48” each. I wove a header using some bulky scrap yarn so that I was starting out with a nice fell line. Then I switched to the cottolin. I wove 4” in plain weave, pinning the first measuring string along the selvedge at the start of my weaving (not including the header). When weaving plain weave with two rigid heddles, simply hold them together and weave as though they were one unit.
The pick-up pattern I used created small weft floats:
Pick-up stick: 2 up, 2 down (remember to put your rigid heddle in the down position when inserting the pick-up stick so that you are only picking up threads in the slots.)
Pattern:
1. Up
2. Pick-up stick (otherwise known as PU)
3. Up
4. PU
5. Up
6. Down
In this case, when the pattern calls for PU, your rigid heddles should be in the neutral position, and you create a shed using only the pick-up stick.
I wove this pattern for a total of four repeats, and then continued along with my plain weave, pinning the measuring string along the selvedge as I went.
When I hit the end of the first measuring string, I wove two picks with a piece of odd colored scrap yarn to indicate my mid-point. I wove 4” in plain weave, pinned the second measuring string down, wove four repeats of the pick-up pattern, and then continued along in plain weave until I got to the end of my second measuring string. At this point the fabric was ready to be removed from the loom, zigzag stitched along the cut edges and washed.
I machine washed my fabric on the delicate cycle in warm water and air dried it. A good steam pressing was next, and this included pressing the hems so that I would have an easier time stitching them into place. I zigzagged the hems, but as I noted earlier, I’ll be picking this stitching out and replacing it with a simple hand stitch so that the hems are concealed. Be sure when you are pressing your hems, that the pick-up patterns line up on each panel. At least in my ideal world, they should hang evenly next to each other.
With my first pair of curtains finished, I am ready to move onto the next room. I may use a bit of Spanish lace this time. I love how you can weave across your warp and then back again to create a sort of oak leaf type design. What will you weave?
Happy Weaving!