Gretchen Fancher

Rigid Heddle Loom Class

Gretchen introduced rigid heddle weaving into the programming at Lion Brand Yarn Studio in NYC, where she taught knitting and weaving and ran education programming for many years. She loves teaching and inspiring both beginning and experienced weavers to explore the possibilities of color play, texture and structure available on these versatile looms.

15hr Class

Weaving Two Ways on the Rigid Heddle Loom

Weave a plain weave bag and a warp faced strap with your rigid heddle loom!
Students will learn to direct warp the loom and weave plain weave. Once they’re
comfortable with the basics, additional techniques for creating surface designs on
the loom will be introduced such as pick up sticks, clasped weft, leno and more.
After completing the fabric for the bag, students will warp their looms for the strap
and learn to weave a warp faced band. Then seam it all together into a bag with an
inner divider.
This class is suitable for beginners. No prior weaving experience is necessary.

Materials Fee: $5

Supply List
• Rigid heddle loom, with a minimum weaving width of 10 inches.
• 8-dent heddle.
• Clamps.
• Warping peg.
• Two stick shuttles
• Belt shuttle.
• Pick up stick.
• Heddle hook.
• Scissors.
• Blunt tapestry needle or sharp sashiko needle
• Optional: Coordinating fabric to line the insert &/or bag
• Lease sticks or paper roll or paper bags to cut up for warp separator.
• Warp yarn: 3/2 or dk weight cotton, yarn, 12-14 wpi, approximately 200
yards for a 10 inch bag.

• Weft yarn: worsted to Aran weight wool or wool blend, a total of approxi-
mately 120 yards for bag weft. Multiple colors are encouraged!

• Strap: 80 to 100 yards of 3/2 or dk weight cotton or worsted weight wool (the
wool will create a shorter strap, due to stretch, but will be easier to work with) for
warp and additional 10 yards for weft.
• A finer weight cotton, such as 8/2 can be used doubled for weft instead of
wool.