I use 8/2 crochet cotton for a lot of my projects but, in order to make a firm and sturdy fabric suitable for a backstrap, I have chosen a medium-weight (DK-weight, about 13 wraps per inch (wpi)) mercerized cotton yarn for both the warp and weft. A wooden ruler can be used as a beater, pencils can replace dowels as cross sticks and heddle sticks, and simple shuttles can be cut from cardboard. Broom handles make excellent loom bars-cut pieces 14-19 inches long. While you are weaving this project and making your own backstrap, an improvised one can be made from a pillow case. So it seems that a trip to the hardware store is in order-not necessarily. Picture yourself there between the loom bar and the backstrap. Now, what's missing from this picture.? Oh yes, that would be you. And what about that "roll-up stick"? Don't worry, all will be revealed. Finally, the weft, which holds everything together, is carried and beaten into place with two additional implements. Two more sticks strategically placed in the middle allow you to manipulate the warps to create sheds. A backstrap loom is basically two sticks between which you stretch your warp. Yes, here is the puzzling collection of sticks and string! But bear with me.this jumble is about to turn into a loom.įorget the fancy labels. I give instructions first for setting up and weaving on a narrow warp-as an introduction to backstrap weaving techniques-before moving on to the wider warp required for making the backstrap itself.īelow is the equipment used in backstrap weaving. It is a simple and practical project which allows you to become familiar with the workings of your loom without having to think about complicated patterning.
This project is woven in plain weave using a medium-weight cotton yarn, and weaves up very fast. When I travel, a strap I've woven rolls up beautifully and goes into my backpack along with my loom sticks.
I based the dimensions of this project on a beautiful braided-straw backstrap that was made for me in Peru in 1997. In this article, I show you the basics of backstrap weaving while teaching you to create one of the fundamental parts of the loom: the backstrap.Īfter fourteen years of backstrap weaving, I have found that a broad and sturdily constructed backstrap, well positioned around the hips (rather than the waist) allows me to comfortably weave at my loom for hours. Many of its secrets have been revealed to me in the homes, hearts, and hands of my weaving teachers-homes at the end of dusty village paths on the cold, harsh, and colorless Bolivian high plains-an environment which starkly contrasts with the warmth of my teachers' welcomes, their overwhelming generosity, and the rich, intricate, and colorful designs they weave into their cloth. I am fortunate to be currently living in Bolivia, a part of the world where this loom is still very much in use today. Small, portable, and inexpensive-the backstrap loom is ideal for those who lack the space for a table or floor loom, would like to be able to take their weaving "on the road" with them, or simply don't have the means to invest in more sophisticated equipment.
Basic, crude, primitive-these are all words that spring to mind when one thinks of the humble backstrap loom-a description that obscures the fact that some of history's most beautiful and complex textiles have been woven on this simple arrangement of sticks.Ī simple loom, yet mysterious.the most frequent comment I hear when I pull out my backstrap rods is, "All those sticks! Where do they go and what in the world do they do?" The puzzling collection of sticks and tangle of yarn miraculously springs to life and transforms itself into a loom when the weaver dons the backstrap, attaches the loom bar, tensions the warp, and starts to weave.
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