Why Direct Warping Earns Its Place on a Smallholding

If you keep a few sheep and spin your own yarn, the last thing you want is a warping frame taking up half the shed. Direct warping skips it entirely. You measure the warp straight onto the loom, using the rigid heddle itself as your guide and a single peg as your measure. There is no separate frame to build, no raddle to buy, and no bundle of threads to wrestle off a board and onto the back beam while the dog watches from the doorway. For a smallholder who weaves in snatches between feeding and fencing, that saving in time is the difference between starting a project and putting it off until next spring.

It works best for a simple scarf or a sampler — something with a straightforward sett and a warm, honest yarn. A Bluefaced Leicester handspun at around 10 ends per inch (roughly 40 ends per 10 cm) suits a 10 dent heddle beautifully, and a Ryeland or Shetland singles will do the same job if you spin a little finer.

Setting Up: Peg, Loom and a Decent Clearance

Clamp the loom firmly to a table. A kitchen table is ideal; it puts the loom at a working height and keeps the warp off the floor, where it will pick up straw, grit and the odd bit of sheep muck.

Now place your warping peg. The distance from the back apron rod to the peg should equal your finished length, plus loom waste, plus a little for take-up and shrinkage.

• Allow about 45 to 60 cm for loom waste on most rigid heddle looms.
• Add roughly 10 per cent for shrinkage if the yarn will be washed and fulled.
• A 180 cm scarf, then, needs a peg placed around 250 cm from the apron rod.

Align the peg with the centre of the heddle so the warp pulls evenly, and make sure the threads run in a straight line from loom to peg. Any sideways angle will load one side of the heddle more than the other and you will fight the tension for the whole warp.

Put the heddle in the back position, or in neutral, so the slots are clear and easy to reach.

Winding the Warp, Slot by Slot

Tie your yarn to the back apron rod with a slip knot, a little left of centre. Take the yarn forwards through the first slot in the heddle, out to the peg, round the peg, and back through the next slot to the apron rod. That is one pass, and it gives you two ends. Carry on across the heddle until you have the width you want.

Because each pass fills one slot with two threads, work out your slot count by halving your total ends. A 25 cm wide scarf at 10 ends per inch needs about 100 ends — so 50 slots.

Keep the yarn under gentle tension as you go. If it starts to kink or twist back on itself, stop, let it hang free for a moment, and let the twist run out. Handspun is far more prone to this than mill-spun, so keep the ball in a bowl on the floor and feed it steadily. Count out loud in pairs as you work across; it is remarkably easy to lose your place mid-heddle.

Cutting Off and Getting the Tension Right

When you reach the last slot, cut the yarn at the peg. You will be left with a row of loops across the front of the heddle. Cut through them so you have loose ends, then tie those ends in very loose overhand knots to stop anything slipping back through the slots.

Now wind on. This is the part that decides whether the warp behaves.

• Wind with firm, even tension, turning the back beam with one hand and spreading the warp flat with the other.
• Insert warp sticks or strips of thick paper between each layer as you go — brown paper from a feed sack works well and costs nothing.
• Work from one selvedge to the other with your hand flat, so no threads dive under their neighbours.
• Stop every few turns and pluck the warp. It should sound a consistent note across the width. A dull thud means that section is slack.

Do not over-tension. You want the warp taut enough to give a clean shed but not so tight that the heddle bows or the apron rod creaks.

Moving Threads into the Holes and Tying On

Every slot now holds two threads. Take one thread from the first slot and thread it through the adjacent hole, leaving the other in the slot. Work across the whole heddle this way, so you finish with a clean alternation of slots and holes — the shed will open properly and your weaving will be even.

Tie the warp onto the front apron rod in small groups, about 2.5 cm wide, using a half-hitch. Tie the middle groups first, then work outwards, adjusting each group until the tension feels the same under your fingers. Trim the tails and you are ready.

First Picks and a Few Hard-Won Pointers

Weave a couple of centimetres in plain weave as a header, then check the shed on both positions. If threads are catching, your tension has drifted and you can ease individual groups at the apron rod.

• Warmer, greasier yarns — the kind straight off a Ryeland fleece — grip each other and are far more forgiving than slippery worsted.
• Keep the peg at the same height as the heddle, or the warp will creep upwards as you work.
• Write your peg distance and slot count in a notebook. Next time you want the same scarf, you will not have to work it out again.

Direct warping is not the fastest method for a long, fine warp, but for a scarf, a sampler or a winter evening's weaving, it is hard to beat. Set up carefully, keep the tension honest, and the loom will repay you with cloth worth the fleece it came from.