Today Fiberistas, I am eating my hat. I am guilty of talking smack about one of my looms. Let me just say one of you inspired me to dive deeper and I have just folded some crazy new techniques into what I have been weaving…so here is the back story….

When I first moved here, I had an opportunity to teach a weaving class at a local yarn shop. However, because the cost of even a simple rigid heddle loom was more than what the shop’s patrons were willing to buy, The shop owner picked a nice lap loom from Harrisville designs as class materials. I purchased that loom to test it out and proceeded to absolutely hate everything about that loom. I could not get a good tension on the warp, the tools included were splintery and kept catching on the art yarn bits. It was a complete bust. The class never happened, and the lap loom went on the shelf in the back of my studio closet.

Fast forward a few weeks ago. A fellow fiberista had mentioned she had been taking some classes from Hello Hydrangea and loving all the inspiring technique info. Of course I HAD to check it out. And yep, I too am loving the tips. This is the kind of weaving that is ALL OVER Pinterest. This is the uber popular hippie weaving style of the 70s revived with trending colors and labeled BoHo. I am fascinated with the techniques, because with this kind of weaving it is all about textures being made through technique as opposed to the yarn itself. And while this technique is done on a frame style tapestry loom, many of these techniques translate to rigid heddle weaving. 

So I broke out the loom, cued up some netflix and made this

I have had an epiphany about why I was wrong about that lap loom. and it is because they are two totally different approaches to weaving. So today fiberista, I am going to share with you the differences and the way you can merge these two styles no matter what loom you choose.

The warp is VERY different.

So when I warped the lap loom the first time, I used some handspun wool yarn like I would use on my rigid heddle loom. The lap loom is really not made to be warped with any yarn that has any kind of give. Primarily you would warp a plain cotton yarn, which is study enough to get the proper tension for this kind of weaving. That boring warp is also often covered up with a weft facing weave. That is not to say you can’t have the warp show as part of the design. And that is also not to say that you can’t use any kind of art yarn that you might want to show off as a warp. If I were to use an art yarn with my lap/tapestry loom would pick a pretty sturdy yarn with as little give as possible. A corespun yarn might be a good choice.

You can always use the technique of working a weft dominant weave on your rigid heddle loom. This is a great way to cover up small sections of art yarn warps. Weft face weaving provides a solid sturdy fabric which is perfect for ends of your piece or to add structure in areas along the length of a delicately woven piece.

Working small and all at once

Even if you are using a super large frame tapestry loom (like a lap loom with legs to prop it up vertically), when I approach designing a new weaving, I feel that you have to have a general idea about what I am trying to make. I am faced with my warp all at once like a blank canvas in painting. With a rigid heddle loom you have a little more freedom of working the moment with just the warp that is in front of you. With the rigid heddle loom, you never really know what you have woven as a whole until it is off the loom. Of course, you could plan it out… but I know for me part of the fun of art weaving is being able to work in the moment, see what inspires each inch and come out with a ballad of inspired weaving.

You can also work a series of many tapestry style weavings at once on a rigid heddle loom with a very long warp. Just leave yourself lots of loom waste in between each piece for finishing the edges. This is awesome for saving time rewarding a tapestry loom for multiple pieces.

Bound by the size of the loom…or not

With most weaving traditionally the goal is some form of yardage. You are advancing the cloth as you work. And traditionally the bigger the loom the better, because that means a wider cloth width to work with. However, when it comes to art weaving I find working on a thinner width has so many advantages. It is easier to manage the textures and subtleties. I can see why most of the tapestry weavings are filled with great compositions of texture and color because a weaver’s focus is on a small set area.

But that is not to say you can’t stitch together smaller and/or thinner weavings. Think of how you stitch together granny squares or other modular crochet. Or how you might piece a quilt. How could you apply that to tapestry weaving? Traditional Guatemala weavers work with smaller widths produced by their backstrap looms then stitch those strips together to make thier garments. How can you translate that to your thinner rigid heddle weaving? How would you piece together both techniques for a larger work of art?

So yeah, I am eating my hat when it comes to my lap loom. Found a new love, and working on ways to merge some of these techniques into my style. I will post my progress on Instagram and in the Fiber art collective(linked below to sign up).

Some of these links are Amazon affiliate links. Meaning, I get a small commission if you chose to buy through my link.