It’s kind of funny how I became a Norwood loom fanatic. I started teaching weaving to my daughter and her friend about a year ago. They both fell in love with weaving and Taylor, the friend, asked me to look for a loom that she could purchase. I found a loom on Facebook Marketplace with her desired width (she’s weaving baby blankets) that wouldn’t break the bank. After purchasing the loom, I brought it back and put it together. I immediately fell in love with the loom and knew it was going to be hard to let it go. Norwood looms are absolutely beautiful! They are made of cherry and are work of art in their own right. Since that original purchase, my daughters and I each have a Norwood loom to call our own. Just a little fun fact- Norwood looms were originally made in Cadillac, Michigan by furniture maker, Wallace McGarr. The company was later moved to Baldwin and then to Freemont. Cadillac is my hometown, so I feel somewhat of an emotional connection to loom. I just can’t wait to add a few more Norwoods to the family!
This blog post is written specifically Taylor, Kassie and Lizzie so that after their first lesson, they can refer back to the post when they get a little stuck. I’m test driving Taylor’s loom to be sure everything works before saying my tearful goodbyes to this beautiful loom. Let’s get to it!
Norwood Sectional Beam
Norwood looms have what’s known as a “sectional beam”. This is different from what you’ve been using on the Macomber loom. There are advantages to having a sectional beam especially if you are putting on longer warps. You know that corrugated cardboard that we struggle to wind on the warp to keep the warp with even tension on the Mac?- we don’t need to do that. So, let’s meet your sectional beam. This is Lizzie’s beam off the loom. Notice there are pegs spaced two inches apart.
Here’s Kassie’s beam on her loom. Notice how her beam has the tie ons positioned for each 2 inch section. This is how we will be tying on the warp.
There are essentially three ways to wind on a sectional beam.
- Treating it similar to how we wind on a solid beam. This is my preferred method for shorter warps (10 yards or shorter) and would work for most of your projects.
- Creating “warp chains” and winding on each chain separately. This is how I wind on the warp on my AVL production loom. This is a good method for longer warps and warps where you want to use the warping wheel as we can easily make chains with the wheel.
- Winding on using a spool rack with wound spools of each of your yarn for that section. If you have a project which requires 24 epi, then you would need 48 spools. For this method you will need a spool rack, spools and a yardage counter. Production weavers will often use this method as you can wind a long warp rather quickly once the spools are ready.
Warping Method
In this post, I’m going to show you the first method. We’ll tackle using warp chains at a later date. We’ll assume you’ve already wound your warp either on a warping board or on the warping wheel. For the test warp I am using 8/4 cotton sett at 12 epi. I wound 6 yards with the intent on weaving a few baby blankets. This warp contains 479 ends which comes out to be a little less than 40 inches. Before starting you will want to be sure you have enough heddles on each of your shafts. The first step is to drape your warp in the order to be beamed over your loom.
Now tie on the lease stick ties (white cord) on each side of the loom. To do this you will fold the tie (string) in half. Wrap the loop around the main body of the loom just over the top heddle bar and slip the ends through the loop. Repeat for the other side of the loom.
After the ties are on the loom, line up the warp chains so that the crosses are lined up. Tie the chains onto the front beam so that there is tension on the warp. Here’s a picture of the warp chains aligned, tightened on the front beam with the tie ons ready for the lease sticks.
Now it’s time to insert the lease sticks. Slide one of the sticks above the cross and the other one below the cross.
Take one of the ends of the string and thread it through the hole coming through the top of the first lease stick and then through the top of the bottom lease stick.
Take the other string and reverse it by threading it through the holes coming through the bottom. You will have a figure 8. You can now tie the strings onto the back beam.
Here’s a top view picture of the loom with the warp through the lease sticks.
With the warp in place you can cut the cross string (if you put one in place while on the warping board) and take out the ties that secured the cross. Here I used potholder loops. I also took out the loop I placed below the cross. You can now cut the end of your warp. Since our sett is 12 epi and our sections on our beam are 2 inch sections we will be making 24 end bundles. Simply slide 24 ends from the lease sticks and tie at the bottom. Move across the warp until you have all the bundles.
This warp contains 20 bundles and there are 20 sections so each section will contain a bundle. If you have less bundles, be sure they are centered along the pegs. So if you have 18 bundles there will be 1 empty section on each side. Each bundle will be tied to a string. To do this pull the string and make a loop.
Slip the loop over the knot and pull tight.
Here’s a picture of all the tied bundles.
Now turn the crank bar to start winding the warp and tightening the tie on strings.
Now we’re going to start working with the raddle. This raddle is specifically designed for the Norwood loom and sits upon the top of the last shaft (shaft #4). The purpose of the raddle is to keep the warp ends in order and aligned as you are warping the beam. Slide the raddle under the warp and place it on the top of the shaft.
Remember each section on your sectional beam is 2 inches. On the raddle, there are seven slots in 2 inches. So, the 24 ends in each section will need to fit in seven slots. So, there will be 4 slots with 3 ends and 3 slots with 4 ends. I separated each section with an empty slot to accommodate the pegs. The end goal is to align the yarn ends so that the bundles roll nicely on each of their own sections. This means you may need to move some little bundles of three and four to accomplish this. I started at the center and worked my way towards each end of the loom.
After making adjustments to be sure every bundle is aligned so it winds within their own pegs, I placed rubber bands along to top to ensure the yarn stays put as we wind on.
Now crank a little bit to get it going, but not a full rotation to avoid an overlap at this point.
Now it’s time to wind on. There are several ways to wind on a warp. The important thing is that you want want the warp to be wound with even tension and without twisted ends. My favorite way to wind on a warp is to gather a few helpers who hold the warp and I wind on. Their job is to hold tension on their bundles and be sure the ends move smoothly through the raddle. They may need to stop a few times to make adjustments. My job as a winder is to wind the warp using the crank on the side while watching as the warp is wound on ensuring there aren’t ends getting hung up on the pegs. If an end is hung up and I don’t fix it, that end will become loose and I’ll have to add a weight later.
Certainly you could use only one “warp helper”, but this is a wide warp so two is better. Each daughter is given half the warp and they hold half in one hand and one in the other as I wind on. Leave about 24 inches over the raddle as shown in the picture.
Now I go to the back of the loom and just double check to be sure all the ends are aligned and make adjustments as needed. This is not in any weaving books, but I like to use chip clips (purchased through Amazon) to secure my warp. Basically I want to keep the bottom part of the warp from falling down below the last stick of my cross. This is just for triple security as I have a very busy house full of babies and dogs.
With the chip clip in, I remove the rubber bands and then the raddle off the shaft.
Now you’re at a point where you need to make a decision as to how thread your heddles. It is possible to keep your loom as as and reach over the front beam to get the ends from the lease sticks. If you choose this option, you do not need to readjust your loom. It just requires bending and reaching to get those ends. If you do it this way, you’ll need to lift your shafts by putting a book or blocks under the base of the shafts so they lift and align with with ends coming off the lease sticks. I prefer to not to reach so that means I’m going to have to disassemble the loom a bit to get in closer to the heddles. This is how I accomplish it.
First I take out the strings securing the lease sticks to the loom one by one and lower them to the base of the shafts and re-secure the sticks. My lease sticks are longer than the width of my loom so I tucked them under the frame.
Here’s another picture from a different angle.
Now release the back and front support bars by unscrewing the bolts.
Push the main frame down by pushing down on the front beam. The back will lift up with your yarn at this point. Now bring down your beater bar to the floor.
I use a small, low seating stool to thread my looms. I am able to fit the legs of the stool between the treadles so I’m not going to remove the treadles. If you don’t have a similar chair you may opt to remove the treadles so you can get to the heddles easier.
You’ll likely need to do some adjustments with your lease sticks so that you can reach behind the heddles and easily get your ends. Cut the loop at the end of the bundles. Once everything is all aligned, I sit on the stool, reach around the heddles to get an end of yarn and then thread it through the first heddle on the appropriate shaft. This process is repeated throughout the warp.
Looking at the picture above the ends through the heddles coming through the front are rather short. I released the brake of the loom and pulled more warp through the heddles as I’ll need more yarn to work with to sley the reed. Now pull the main frame up back into place, pull the beater bar back up and secure the front and back supports. Take a peek at the back of the loom and adjust your yarn and heddles so it goes straight through the heddles. See how everything looks aligned in the picture below?
The next step is to sley the reed.
You’ll likely notice as you sley your reed that metal hooks which hold the shaft bars interferes with the several of the heddles falling into place.
This needs to be fixed. To do this, release the metal hooks from the bar by pulling up (top) or down (bottom) on the tabs and pulling the bar out. With the hooks released, move the heddles into proper alignment and secure the bars in place once again.
You are now ready to tie on!
Just wanted to add a few little considerations about warping your loom. The first has to do with warping sticks. Warping sticks are flat sticks that are longer than your warp, but not too long that they extend beyond your beam that are placed periodically in your warp as you wind on. The purpose to keep even tension on your warp. For this warp, I did not put in the warping sticks and some weavers do not use them at all when using a sectional beam. This warp is only 6 yards in length and I didn’t need them. If this was an exceptionally long warp, I would have placed the sticks in just to be sure I get even tension. The second consideration has to do threading the heddles. To align the heddles with the yarn coming off the lease sticks another option is to lift the shafts. To do this you can insert a book below the shafts to lift them up.
Well, I hope this post gives you at least a starting pointing for learning to warp this particular loom. The Norwood loom is new to all of us and as we get a few projects under our belt I’m sure we’ll find ways to tweak the process and each of you may find your own preferences as well.
Just a note to Taylor. This warp has 479 ends which ends up to be about 40 (39.9) inches wide. Even though there are a few extra slots on each side of your reed, 479 ends would be your max as threading more ends would create a kink in the yarn coming from the shafts. In other words, although your reed would allow more ends, your shafts are narrower than your reed. When planning projects stay within 40 inches. Have fun! You got this! After winding a few warps, it’ll all become second nature.
