Design a Warp With Me!

3/9/2023

My test warp is off my Cricket Quartet, my studio finally has great lighting, so now it's time to get weaving!

Most weaving videos on the internet focus on the actual weaving process, and there are plenty of those coming up. Today's videos focus more on the design process. This is the process I learned when I first started weaving, and it's let me mostly design all my own projects without having to rely on printed patterns.

I do use a few books for "design recipes," though! Here are a few of my favorites for 4-shaft looms:

Learning to Weave : Great for learning the basics, how to do the math, plus a few handy hints.
The Handweaver's Pattern Directory : Lots of different weave structures for 4-shaft looms. Color pictures!
A Handweaver's Pattern Book : This is a partial reprinting of "The Green Book." It has most of the patterns of the original, but not all. However, the original is out of print and sells for a lot of money! This version is easier to find and a good place to start.

In this first video, I walk through the math I use to make sure I have enough yarn. For this project, I'm using a 3-ply linen from Weaver House, sett at 20 ends per inch. My pattern has 268 ends, which lets me use the whole width of the Cricket Quartet.

As promised in the video, here are the free downloads:

Excel Warp Calculator
File Size:	12 kb
File Type:	xlsx

Download File

Weaving Notes
File Size:	1969 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

In this second video, I walk through my process designing the warp in WeaveIt. This isn't a full tutorial of WeaveIt, but if you need one of those, Sally has created plenty of helpful tutorials on her channel.

If you're interested in using or modifying this pattern for your own use, there are free downloads below - one is to the WIF file, and the other is a printable PDF.