How To Finish Weaving On A Rigid Heddle Loom
The last step of any weaving project is always to remove the weave from the loom.
Fortunately, learning this isn’t as difficult as learning how to warp a loom.
However, to prevent your weave from falling apart and unraveling, it’s important to learn how to finish a weaving loom project the right way.
How to finish a weaving loom project
- Carefully take off all the loop from the nails without tugging or pulling the threads too much.
- Cut the warp thread at the beginning of the weave where the warp is attached to the loom with a knot.
- At the two edges, you want to take the loose strand and the adjacent loop and knot them together. You can use an overhand knot or any other knot you prefer. The loops in the middle can be knot individually.
- Do the same process on the other side of your weave.
- To safely secure the two side strands, you can either weave them back in or simply knot them around the adjacent loop.
Tying the knots is much easier if you have plenty of space between the loops and the start of your weave. So keep that in mind next time you start weaving.
How to take weaving off the loom
The exact process of finishing your weaving and removing it from the loom depends on the loom you are using.
But if you are using one of the looms for beginners, such as a lap loom or rigid heddle loom, you will always have to secure the end of the weft thread to make sure it doesn’t unravel.
Normally this is done by using a tapestry or weaving needle.
Start off by tieing a knot first and then weave the loose end into the back of your weaving project.
You don’t want to mess up your design, so try to weave the end into a part with the same color.
Constantly check the front and back to make sure it looks ok.
Sometimes this method might not work. In that case, you can try using a hem stitch as well.
The hemstitch is a little more work but generally gives a very nice finish as well.
.@SamHeughan @MyPeakChallenge My 1st mostly completed project: a 4″ x 6″ coaster! Still need to weave in the loose ends. But yay me! pic.twitter.com/AYBzRw4FMY
— Frances Laursen (@prtndurgoodatit) 2016년 12월 7일
What to Do With Loose Warp Threads?
If you removed the weave from the loom as shown below, you are left with a bunch of dangling warp threads.
As usual, there are several ways to take care of these.
1 Weaving in weft ends
Just like the loose end of the weft thread, you can take care of the loose warp threads by weaving them back in.
To do this, start off by knotting two adjacent warp threads into a knot and then weave them back in together using a tapestry needle.
If the loose ends are very long, you can trim them after weaving them in a few stitches.
Continue this process for every single warp thread on both sides.
Just like before, you can also use the hem stitch to take care of the warp threads.
2 Keeping the warp loops
Some weaving looms allow you to take the weave of without having to cut the warp threads.
This way, you are left with warp loops on both ends rather than loose ends.
You can cut these loops anyway and tuck them back into the weave like described above.
Or you can insert a long object such as a dowel rod to keep the warp loops in place.
Since the inserted object will be visible, you should consider which object would go nicely with your design before you start weaving.
One nifty trick is to twist the loops once before inserting anything.
This way the warp loops will look much more pretty and evenly spaced on the dowel rod.
3 Tie off weaving loom
If you want to hang your weave but you have to cut the warp to remove it from the loom, then you can simply tie the loose end back together to form new loops.
This methods basically combines the above two methods into one.
Start by taking two adjacent warp threads and knot them together.
Then weave the knotted warp threads through the weave using a single stitch. But don’t pull them through all the way. Make sure to leave enough to form the loop.
Finally, tie two sets of two knotted warp ends together to secure the looms.
Check this post by theweavingloom for step by step instruction and photos.
The tricky part is to make sure that every loop you make is the same size to make sure you weave will hang horizontally.
