Rigid Heddle Weaving

Remember those mini skeins that I finished dyeing last week? Well here is the project I promised to share with you. The contraption in the pic below is called a rigid heddle loom. And at this stage I was in the middle of warping the loom. The length of the yarn strands is roughly how long the scarf will be. I prefer my scarves extra long so I used an old crafting table to extend beyond the folding table.
To start, I tie off the first strand, feed it through the heddle (which is the board with the slots standing upright on the loom). Then I walk down to the peg and loop the strand around, and walk back to the loom where I feed another strand and repeat the process. I do this until I get my scarf the width that I desire. This loom is 28" wide, so that is my maximum unless I use a second heddle kit, but that's a tutorial for a different time.

once I am at my desired width, I take the end that is wrapped around the loop and I cut the ends so they are seperatee. I then tie the ends into one big knot and proceed to the loom and begin winding it up. Because that part was difficult to take photos of, here's a shot of what the yarn looks like after I have wound it onto the loom.

once I have it wound up, I begin to seperate one of the strands and feed it through the little eye holes. I do this for the width of the scarf.

I then take a small group of the yarn and tie the ends into a knot and secure it the the loom as seen below. I do this the entire length, trying to maintain consistency and tension.

Then I can begin weaving. I pass something called a shuttle boat through the yarn strands. It has yarn also wound onto it. The heddle, where the yarn is stranded through, moves up and down according to each pass. It's hard to photograph without both hands available.

I love the way the colors came out when we kettle dyed the yarn! It's always exciting to see how it will knit or weave up because the color will change.

Here is one of the mini skeins that got chosen for this project.

Here is the other color I chose to use. And you can see the boat shuttle as well.

Here is the scarf fresh off the loom.

And here it is completely finished. I like to twist the fringe so it stays nice.

I really love the way this turned out! The colors are lovely! The hardest part is deciding if I want to keep it for myself or sell it! Keep an eye out at my shop for this scarf and more like it in the upcoming months!