Direct Warp a Rigid Heddle Loom for Log Cabin Pattern Scarf

First, yes, I’m learning to weave…

Inspired by a “weave along” or WAL at Weavolution I set out to figure out a way to use the popular direct warp technique to setup my Schacht Flip loom.  Someday, I learn to use a warping board, but the direct warp method has worked well so far!   I wanted to weave a scarf, about 70″ long and 8″ wide in the log cabin pattern.   I probably spent way too much time thinking this through, but on a beautiful “Indian Summer” day here in west-central Ohio, yard work gave me plenty of time to work this out in my head.  It paid off in the results:  it worked!  I had 72 ends (9 groups of 8 ends) pulled through my 8-dent heddle in about an hour.  Another 1/2 hour and the ends were redistributed through the heddle per the draft (essentially, alternate colors).

Here’s how I did it – I assume you’ve worked with direct warping a rigid heddle loom, so you’ve setup your warping peg at the required distance from the warp apron rod of your loom – for my project about 100″ :

I began by setting up my warp supply – two balls of Berroco glace -  behind my loom.  Two colors, black & white, were used.  Since I was creating a warp of 72 ends, I started by counting over 36 holes and slots to the right of the center of my heddle.  The idea here is to center the warp on the loom.  The warp supply ends were tied to the rear apron rod at this point.

Working from Right to Left across the heddle, I started …

1. Pull a loop of  white (i.e. 2 ends)  into the selected slot and around your warp peg.
2. Pull a loop of black (again, 2 ends) into the hole immediately to the left.
3. I skipped the next slot and hole
4. Pulled through another loop of white (2 ends each) throug the next slot
5. and a loop of black through the hole immediately to the left
   (8 ends have been pulled through at this point, ending the first pattern “column”)
6. Now, to create the next “log cabin” pattern column, I skipped the next slot and hole, then pulled through a black loop through the next slot.
7. And a loop of white through the next hole .
8. Skipped a slot and hole.  And pulled a black loop through a slot and a white loop through the next hole.

Here what it should look like ( | = heddle slot, o = heddle hole):

|  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |
         Ww Bb       Ww Bb       Bb Ww       Bb Ww

      W=white end in final position, w = white end to be moved
      B = black end in final position, b = black end to be moved

 Here’s the start:

The paper clip marks the end of the first block of 8 ends as a reminder.  The orange post-it marked the starting slot.  The red line marks the center of the heddle.  You can see the skipped slot/hole combination which will be filled shortly!

Initial threading done:

and here:

I wound this warp onto the back beam useing a paper seperator as usual, while tensioning the warp, until about 18″ of warp remained in front of the loom.

Continuing to work from Right to Left, the first move was to take an end from a hole and move it one hole to the left:

|  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |
   W     W  Bb W     W  Bb B     B  Ww B     B  Ww

The second (and final) move working from Right to Left, was to take an end from a slot and move it one slot to the left:

|  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |  o  |
   W  B  W  B  W  B  W  B  B  W  B  W  B  W  B  W

I worked these moves a group at a time completing the redistribution of 8 ends before moving onto the next.

This pattern was repeated across the loom for a total of 72 ends.  The pattern “reverses” every 8 ends –  i.e. two ends of the same color are next to one another at that point.

The warp end re-distribution started:

And finished:

The moves from holes worked pretty well with this warp on the Schacht heddle.  Somewhere it seems to me I read that these heddles have larger holes (confirmation please?).

The initial tie-onto the cloth apron rod:

And a final view prior to tensioning the warp carefully:

I’ll post a few photos as the weaving progresses.

Bonne tissage,

Steve