How to Create a Manual Loom for Weaving

This tutorial will explain how to create a manual loom and how to prepare it for use. This simple loom only takes minutes to make, but can be used for all sorts of weaving projects, from small decorative tapestries, to personalized placemats and rectangles of cloth which can be sewn into larger projects.

Materials
You will need a frame and very small finishing nails to create the loom itself. You can make the frame from fresh pieces of wood, but the easier way is to buy a wooden frame from a thrift store. The interior opening of the frame should be at least 11 inches x 14 inches, or larger for creating place mats. You will also need a thin piece of wood the same width and thickness and about half the length of a yard stick. You will also need thread or yarn,a ruler and a hammer.

Instructions
Orient the frame as for a portrait. Starting at the edge of the inside top left corner, approximately ½ inch above the interior opening, make a mark every ¼ inch* along the top piece of wood in the frame, until you reach the opposite interior corner. On the bottom piece of wood, repeat this process, but start measuring from 1/8 inch to the left of the inside edge, not flush with the edge.

Drive a nail into each of the marks that you made on the top and the bottom. Do not drive the nails all the way into the wood. Drive them in only far enough that they will stay in place even when force is applied. The head of each nail should extend at least ¼ inch from the wood.

To thread the loom, tie a knot into one end of your thread or yarn. Loop this around the first nail on the top of the loom. Wind the thread down toward the right side of the first nail on the bottom, and then up on the left side of this nail. Repeat this process until you have wound each nail. Tie the thread to the last nail. These threads are known as the warp.

Holding the yard stick-sized piece of wood flat, slide it under the first thread on the right, over the second, under the third, and so on, until it comes out the left side of the loom. If you flip it up onto its side, it will raise those threads it is under, allowing you to pass the weft thread underneath easily. Drop it back for the next weft pass, weaving under the threads you previously wove over. You may find a crochet hook helpful for this.

*Once you have experience with basic weaving, if you decide to try to make cloth, you will probably want to place nails every 1/8 inch, for a tighter weave.