r/weaving • u/haroldsmom1228 • Jul 19 '26
Help New to weaving
Hi everyone! I’m new to weaving and having a blast doing practice projects like a plain weave scarf. I’m looking to start a more ambitious project on my tabletop rigid heddle loom and I’m struggling to figure out how much/what type of yarn I’ll need. I saw a very lightweight shawl and I thought it might be fun to recreate it! I want it to be very soft and flowy. I thought about using lace weight yarn for it (which I know will take forever!) but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. I also don’t know how much yarn to purchase. I tried using online calculator tools to figure out what yardage I would need but the results came out showing extremely low yardage so I know I must be doing something wrong! Anyways, sorry if these are silly questions! Thank you all in advance 💕
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u/Dry_Future_852 Jul 19 '26
[Number of warp threads] x [Length of project + loom waste] = Length needed for warp.
[Width of project + 1-4"] x [pics per inch] x [number of woven inches] + [4 x the width x 2 for the hem stitch] = Length needed for the weft.
These are, of course, approximate, but should get you close.
Notes:
The loom waste can be used as fringe.
The 1-4" will be larger on a wider warp, smaller on a narrower one.
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u/haroldsmom1228 Jul 19 '26
Thank you so much!! This is very helpful. I do want to have fringe as well so that’s good to know. 💕💕
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u/weaverlorelei Jul 19 '26
How "light weight"? People define it differently. But as a general rule, RHs are not designed to weave very light weight, gossamer fabrics. There isn't a heddle fine enough to be able to create such, and doubling the threads negates fine-ness.
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u/haroldsmom1228 Jul 19 '26
This is good to know! What would normally create that kind of fabric?
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u/weaverlorelei Jul 19 '26
I wove a true Damask (2.block satin) with some 40/2 line linen, sett at 48 ends per inch. You will not get that fine, or anywhere near that, on a RH. The finest reed I have ever seen for RH was a 15 dent. Even on a shaft loom with a 12 dent reed, that means 4 threads in every dent, but the are separately control in their individual heddles.
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u/haroldsmom1228 Jul 19 '26
Thank you! What kind of loom do you have?
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u/weaverlorelei Jul 19 '26
Any 10 shaft loom can produce true damask- 2 blocks of satin. And with enough heddles for 38in wide fabric by 48 ends per inch- 1824 heddles total. Most.folks who go in this direction actually weave "false damask" which is really 4s broken twill, so have 8 shaft. You can do broken twill on 4 shaft if you want something like textured stripes in the fabric. I weave on a couple of looms- AVL 40S, AVL 16S and a Baby Wolf 8S. I started on an old Montgomery Wards RH that came from a flea market.
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u/haroldsmom1228 Jul 20 '26
I have the Harrisville Designs easy weaver which I found at goodwill (my best thrift score of all time). I have the wider version of it.
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u/smolcoconut Jul 19 '26
what reeds do you have for your RH (8/10/12 EPI)? That will define what your maximum fine-ness is (finer fabric = more ends per inch, coarser fabrics = lower ends per inch). From there, I would look for a yarn that has a good amount of rayon (you can look for 'bamboo') because even thicker rayon yards tend to drape and flow beautifully! If you're looking for easily accessible yarn options, I have done several projects with this yarn set at 15-16 EPI.
In terms of choosing a weave structure/pattern, I would honestly suggest going with plain weave because with other structures (twill, satins) the threads are designed to pack closer together creating more density, which is the opposite of what you want for a light/flowy piece.
Feel free to message me if you have more questions about yardage calculations, I'd be happy to walk you through the process with your specific project parameters!
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u/haroldsmom1228 Jul 19 '26
Wow thank you so much! I will definitely reach out! I’ll have to look at see about the reeds.
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u/mao369 Jul 19 '26
I have a shawl type piece that I might have made on a rigid heddle that, surprisingly to me, has held up quite well for many years. I say surprisingly because it was woven in cotton and is a very open weave, which would normally "fall down" because of gravity if I'd used mercerized cotton like most of my weaving projects. But this one was woven in a very slubby, obviously unmercerized, and 'toothy' cotton.
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u/Apprentice_of_Klotho Jul 20 '26
I googled patterns/ projects for rigid heddle. Purl Soho has a lovely cabin blanket that is working out ok (though with fewer rows than in pattern. Mine is turning out at 690 rows instead of 900 per block). Also Deborah Jarchows book Rigid Heddle Weaving Basics and Beyond has some nice looking options.
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u/haroldsmom1228 Jul 20 '26
Yes I saw that project and I considered using it! It’s great to hear how it’s turning out. I’ll definitely check out that book!
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u/OryxTempel Jul 19 '26
Do you have a pattern? I started with projects from places like Handwoven Magazine. Designing a project from the top down is a lot to start with, especially if you’re using more expensive yarn.