Table Runner

I have started work on my third table runner. My second one won first prize at the Salmon Arm Fair this September (see more on my blog Born2cree8. Link is on the right.) and my family and friends were very impressed with it. I gave that one to my sister, Marcy. Now I am making a few more. I can't say who they are for or for what occations, just in case someone that's getting one looks here one day. But what I can do is walk you through the process with me.


This is my warping board. It is how I measure all the warp threads that need to go on the loom. This table runner needs 405 ends (threads) each 90" long. I measure a string (different from the warp threads) and tie it on the warping board in the design that best measures out that length. Then I follow that string with the warp thread (in this case a synthetic fibre called Orlec, in the color Champagne) I have learned in the past that if you measure all 400+ threads at once the pegs can bend a bit and give you shorter pieces the further out you get, so I measured 3 x 100 ends, then 1 x 105 ends (not sure why they call each thread and end, but that is the terminology used).

When winding the treads onto the warping board you always to do the one end in a cross as above. This is very important when "warping the loom". You cut open the end of the loop at the cross, holding it in a special way to keep the cross threads in order as they must be put onto the loom in the right order or everything will tangle into and unusable mess of knots.

When you take the warp threads off the warping board you make them into a warp chain like this. It it so that the threads don't get tangled before you can thread them onto the loom.

Here I'm tying it onto the loom. This is different than usual. I am using the same threading pattern for this runner as I did for the last one (I will be using use a different treadle pattern for a slightly different weave), so rather than rethreading the entire loom (reed and heddles, then tying on at the back) I cut the last one off by cutting the treads in front of the reed and tying them in large, loose knots. I am now opening those knots and tying each end of my new chain onto the ends of the "loom waste" still in place on the loom. This saves a fair amount of the warp material, though it's hard to say if it takes more work/time to thread and tie on the whole warp or to tie all these little knots.

The treads in this last picture sure look grey, but they aren't. They are Champagne, more like how they look in the other pictures.