due to popular demand (two reblogs) I give you:
My Weaving Crash Course
Credentials: I've been weaving since January of 2025 and (as of Sep of 2025) made over $700 in sales. I also have autism and this has been a hyperfixation of mine, which is arguably a better credential than my sales.
Disclaimers: This is an expensive, artisan hobby. There are significant initial learning and monetary curves, but once you get the rhythm down and all your necessary equipment, it gets much easier. Get anything you can second-hand or gently-used, because artisan tools are expensive to begin with, and if you live in the US, the tariffs are tearing through the textile community at the moment. Occasionally, you can find bulk plastic bags of yarn for like $5. F*cebook M*rketplace is also good for bulk, cheap yarn but it goes really quickly so you have to be vigilant. It's where I got my floor loom, but that's like intermediate weaving so don't worry about that right now.
To begin: The best place you can gain information about anything is your local, small yarn store if you have one. Chains like Michaels, and the Late But Not Forgotten Joann's will not be as helpful (in my experience) because you need the older ladies that have been doing textiles since before you were born to help guide you. Yarn store regulars/owners are super duper helpful, and also just want to talk textiles with other people. Find people who know their shit. Let them infodump on you. There are some yarn stores that will host weaving classes so you can learn if you like it without buying equipment. Do that first if you can.
Vocab list because there's a lot of jargon flying around:
Weaving:
1. Warp: the longer threads that run vertical along your material
1.5. Warp-facing: fabric that shows more of the warp threads compared to the weft threads. A "balanced" weave shows warp and weft equally
2. Weft: the shorter threads that run horizontal along your material
2.5. Weft-facing: fabric that shows more of the weft threads compared to the warp threads
3. Selvedge: the edge of the fabric that keeps it from unravelling. This naturally occurs as you use the same weft string. I'll get to color changes/weft changes in a bit
4. Shed: the gap that is created when separating warp threads, where you put your shuttle. In a standard plain weave, there are 2 sheds: one for the threads in the slots, and one for the threads in the holes.
Looms:
1. Rigid Heddle: I'd suggest starting with this type of loom as it's the simplest, least-expensive, and will teach you the basics pretty quick. It does a lot of the work for you, and at least the Ashford loom had a very-detailed instruction booklet that came with it.
2. Tapestry loom: depending on what type/brand, this one sometimes does not have a built-in method to separate warp threads because most tapestry weavers do very intricate work, and don't always need to weave a full row. If you're detail oriented, this is the one for you.
3. Inkle loom: this one is primarily for belts/skinny fabric as it only is a few inches wide, but can be several yards long. You can get insanely technical with the patterns on these. I have no idea how any of that works. [Edit: look at @/gardenvarietyfae’s comment under this post for a better understanding of inkle looms/tablet weaving!]
4. Table loom: intermediary between rigid-heddle and floor loom. You're typically given more shafts (therefore more sheds) to play with. This is when you start getting into the Technical Nightmare Zone.
5. Floor loom: you're playin with the big dogs here. A bigger table loom that you use your feet to change the shafts. If you want to make wide projects like blankets and rugs, this is what you'll need.
Tools/parts:
1. Heddle: the thing that separates the warp for you. There are rigid-heddles (ones that are fixed in place), and there are metal/linen individual heddles that are mostly used on floor looms. Use linen ones over metal ones, because they're easier to work with and not so god dang loud.
2. Reed: interchangeably used to describe a 'rigid heddle'. Reeds have different 'dents', or the density/size of threads it allows. 'DPI' stands for 'dents-per-inch', or just how dense a warp will be. Just start with a 7.5 dpi, or whatever reed is given to you with your loom, as that'll be just fine for working with standard (5 gauge) acrylic yarn.
Note: There's another thing called a 'Knitter's loom' in the Ashford world, make sure when you're buying reeds that you get the correct size/type.
Beware of using a too-dense reed with fuzzy yarn. If you, for instance, use a fingering-weight merino wool on a 15 dent reed, the yarn will stick together regardless of what the reed does, and you will be hand-picking apart every. goddamn. thread each time you move the reed. I have carried this burden for you.
3. Shuttle: the thing that organizes the yarn neatly and lets you weave your weft. there are a bunch of different styles, but start with a 'stick shuttle' (most likely your loom kit will come with one). Tip: when you wind your yarn onto the shuttle, go up and around the sides like the second picture, don't just go straight down the middle. This will help you pack more yarn onto your stick as it's bulging out the sides instead of the middle.
4. Pick-up stick: stick you use to separate the warp behind the heddle to create different patterns. Don't worry about that right now
5. Weaving needle: get yourself like three of these immediately before anything else (you'll lose them lol). These are large-gauge, blunt needles anywhere from 2-7 inches long that you can get at your local craft store for like less than $3 each. This will help you with repair/hemstitching/detail work/a bunch of other stuff. This is the quality-of-life tool you need probably the most.
Your tools: I personally started with an Ashford 10 Inch Sample-It Rigid Heddle Loom. Buying weaving tools is a lot like buying power tools in the sense were you get sorted into the three houses of DeWalt, Milwaukee, or Bosch (I know there are more power tool brands, but, like, these are the big ones). I use Ashford, but Schacht Spindle also has a good range of rigid heddle/table/floor looms.
Once you've gotten and assembled your loom: use acrylic yarn you don't care about. Acrylic will allow you to make mistakes easier, won't break on you, and you will feel less guilty with "using it all up" than you will with any other type of yarn. I very much had the mindsets of Perfectionism/Creator's Guilt/Sticker Paralysis/I Can't Use Pretty Notebooks Because I'll Ruin Them By Writing In Them before weaving, and now I'm actually creating stuff for once in my life and not feeling guilty for "wasting" material. Get something like a big glass vase or fishbowl to put your scrap yarn in to celebrate your progress.
here are my fish <3
Changing colors/weaving in ends: this is vital if you want your creations to stay in one piece. When you do warp color changes, you just tie them onto the loom as instructed. When doing weft color changes, give yourself an extra few inches when you cut your yarn, wrap the weft around the outermost warp thread 1-2 times, then pack it into the shed you were just in. Here's a diagram from Schacht:
See how at the very beginning it doubles up in the same shed on the right side? Do that for every end you come in contact with (Except for the first/last wefts of a project, just leave a longish tail and you'll finish the ends with hemstitching).
What's hemstitching? It's how the short ends of your fabric don't immediately unravel. Go follow tabbyandtweed on Instagram and watch a video like this one showing how to hemstitch. Go under 3 warp threads and 1 weft, poke through, go back and loop around those 3 warps, going above the weft this time, and loop your active yarn to make a knot. It makes a lot more sense to watch it rather than read it tbh.
Don't worry if your ends/selvedge looks bad or uneven. Don't worry about it. Everyone worries about it. I promise you, no one but you cares. Your Work Is Beautiful.
When you've got your fabric off of the loom, firstly--congratulations-- secondly, you need to wash and dry it. Washing helps with re-distributing tension so it looks more consistent, and it'll felt (make the fibers mesh into each other, making it softer/warmer) and soften the yarn considerably. Find wool soap (I use Eucalan Wool Wash, Lavender Scented), fill a tub/sink in warm, not hot water, put your fabric in with a cap-full of the soap, and let marinate for 10-20 minutes. Dry flat or on a shower curtain rod. Make note that your fabric will wrinkle to whatever texture you dry it on. If you're using a cooking drying rack, there might be drying-rack imprints on your fabric.
Have fun, allow yourself to make mistakes, and hey--if this isn't for you, then learning that knowledge about yourself is just as important.
My weaving instagram can be found here, and my Etsy is here!
