Backstrap Weaving

This is a list of steps for those of you who have put a backstrap loom together, are ready to weave your first project, and are asking “Where do I start?” I have put together here a description of the various tutorials that I have made available online and the order in which I recommmend following them.

Take it slowly, follow these steps and develop your skills before you attempt the more complex techniques like double weave and Andean pebble weave.

I recommend you read my article on WeaveZine called “Backstrap Basics“ first which, through step-by step photos and videos, will show you how to  set up your loom and weave a narrow and wide plain weave single-color piece.

The plain narrow band above that I wove for this tutorial is now the sides and strap for a small shoulder bag.

The article goes on to show you how to set up and weave a wider piece which can be made into the backstrap for your loom.

Many members of the Backstrap Weaving Group at Ravelry and Weavolution have woven their own backstraps following this tutorial using plain and variegated yarns for different effects.

Backstraps by, from top left, dognapper2, bibi, kimo and cathyz.

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Moving on from there you may want to continue practicing making warps with even tension, making the string heddles, opening the sheds smoothly and weaving neat selvedges by weaving more bands but, this time, incorporating some simple stripes for interest like the examples at left.

This is a nice way to use up some odds and ends of colored yarns in your stash. Be adventurous with your color combinations! Perhaps you would like to try finer yarns.

When winding a warp with several colors,  wind your normal figure-of-eight warp with your first color around two stakes as shown.

Cut your first color at the starting stake, tie on the next color and continue winding. Join on all colors at the starting stake and put that end of the warp on your far loom bar when you set up to weave. It is always a good idea to untie the start and end loops once you have set up your loom and retie the first and last warps tighter as these two warps tend to get slack while you are weaving.

More stripey inspiration from Bobbie:

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Supplementary weft patterning is a beautifully simple  technique that allows you a lot of freedom in your color choices for your patterns. All you need to know how to do is wind a warp for basic plain weave and read the pattern charts shown in the tutorial embedded in this post.

The key to success in this technique is choosing the right yarns.

The colored patterning weft yarn needs to be much thicker, or better said, “wider” than the ground weave yarn (the white yarn in the above example).

A patterning weft yarn that lies flat is ideal.

I find that using embroidery floss for the colored patterning wefts works best. I double the strands and they lie nice and flat on the surface of the weaving and provide enough coverage from one weft pass to the next. A 24wpi  yarn like the number 3 crochet cottons sold in the US makes a good ground warp.

Ann Littlewood’s supplementary weft patterned bands can be seen at left.

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Your next project could be a band with striking horizontal stripes. This involves a rearrangement of the basic warp cross which is a new skill to be learned.

You will be preparing a warp with two colors for this band winding perhaps  for a solid color border and then an area of horizontal stripes. The simplest way for a beginner to wind this warp and maintain even tension  is to wind two colors at once.

The following drawing shows a warp being prepared with two colors, a border of solid green and an area of red and yellow stripes. The red and yellow yarns are tied onto the green together and these two colors continue the figure-of-eight path together.

The figure-of-eight path with the two yarns together is shown in the next drawing…

The warp will look like the one above left when it comes off the warping board with the cross sticks in place.

In order to weave horizontal stripes you need to rearrange the warps so that they are arranged like those in the warp above right.

You will use your fingers to rearrange the warps as shown here at left. The green border warps don’t need any rearrangement so just place those on the upper stick on your index finger and those on the lower stick on your middle finger. Separate out the reds and yellows on your two fingers. It doesn’t matter onto which finger you decide to place the two colors.

Replace your fingers with cross sticks and you will have your new cross. Make string heddles around the warps on the lower stick and use a shed stick or loop for the warps over the upper stick.

A more direct way of achieving this arrangement on the warping board itself by using four stakes, can be seen in a short video segment here.

Horizontal bars can be added as an accent to other designs like the narrow black and white bars which separate the stripes on these small purses I made recently.

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Once you have completed your band with horizontal stripes,  there are two options that I can recommend for your next project.

1. Simple warp floats (pictured above). In this technique motifs can be woven on a base of horizontal stripes.

There are video clips showing this technique here. The full tutorial with step-by-step photos and video is here.

Aunt Janet and Franee wove the bands at left using simple warp floats on a base of horizontal stripes for their patterns.

Often neglected,  this technique is wonderfully simple and can produce some beautiful designs. I learned it in coastal Ecuador but it turns up all over the place. It appears to have been used to decorate the gorgeous Iranian bag at right  which was warped for black and white and red and tan stripes all in the one piece.

2. Comb designs.

These are a combination of vertical and horizontal stripes and you will wind your warp as you did for horizontal stripes with your two pattern colors together.

Using the black and red band above left as an example, you will wind black warps for the border, followed by black and red together.

Then you will wind red alone to create the central vertical stripe followed by another section of black and red together.

The beautiful 40 ft piece at left described as “TransCaucasus” has four sections of black and white combs amongst red, blue and yellow stripes. I am dying to weave something like this!

The warp at left comprises four revolutions of black yarn followed by two revolutions of black and orange.

The central stripe comprises two revolutions of orange alone which are followed by another two revolutions of black and orange together. It finishes with four revolutions of black.

The cross will look like this as the warp comes off the warping board.

The cross needs to be rearranged to look like this…

By playing around with different arrangements of vertical and horizontal stripes, you can create other patterns like the ones above left . Above right, is a close up of the weft and the way it lies at the edge of the weaving. Creating neat selvedges can be challenging at first. I used a weft in a contrast color so that it would show up at the edge and give you an idea of how it sits.

A more direct way of separating colors into the different sheds on the warping board itself by using four stakes, can be seen in a short video segment here.

Jennifer has used various combinations of stripes and horizontal bars in her pieces below.

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In this more advanced Guatemalan technique, patterns are formed by laying in supplementary wefts or wrapping them around warps. Different shapes can be woven and filled and it allows freedom to choose your colors as you go.

A two-part tutorial here shows you how to create the patterning sheds to weave these kinds of designs and how to form the shapes. The tutorial has step-by step pictures and a video.

You should be competent with weaving basic supplementary weft patterns before attempting these more advanced supplementary weft patterning techniques.

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This technique gives you a good introduction to the skills that are necessary for complementary warp weaves. You can weave motifs on a solid color background. It is not, however, a double faced weave and you will have long floats on the back of your piece. This technique is used by the Bedouin people to weave tent dividers amongst other things…

The designs in black and white on the above piece have been woven in the warp substitution technique. The tutorial can be seen here.

Learning this technique will prepare you well for the intermediate level ”one-weft double weave” tutorial.

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The next logical step, for me, would be the more complex form of simple warp floats which you can see in tutorials here and here.  Do the “X and O” tutorial first as this has more detailed instructions. The “S” design tutorial is less detailed and assumes that you have had practice with the steps from having done the “X and O” one. Below on the left is what was originally intended to be a cell phone pouch but which ended up being used for something quite different. On the right is a belt made using the border design on a Kyrgyz yurt band.

Above is the Kyrgyz yurt band which inspired my exploration of this patterning technique.

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Here this list of techniques and tutorials ends. On another page soon I will list more advanced techniques which begin with the basics of complementary warp patterning. Don’t forget to incorporate some of the braids and finishes also detailed in this blog into your pieces.

Intermediate level weavers could start with my ebook on Andean Pebble Weave which can be purchased at: