Craft & DIY

#23 · Weave through a small loom

Use a chopstick as a shed rod or beater for a small tabletop weaving project. Artisan vibes on a budget.

On a child's weaving frame or a small tapestry loom, most of the difficulty is getting the weft through the warp without snagging every third thread. A chopstick works as both shuttle and beater, which are usually two separate tools.

How to do it

1. Wind a length of yarn around one end of the chopstick a few times to hold it.
2. Pass it over and under the warp threads across the row.
3. Pull the yarn through, leaving it slightly slack in a shallow arc rather than straight and tight.
4. Turn the chopstick on its edge and press the row down firmly against the previous one.
5. Come back the other way, alternating which threads you go over.

Why it works

The slack arc is the part beginners skip and the reason home-made weaving pulls into an hourglass. Yarn has to travel further over and under the warp than the straight-line distance across it, so laying it flat and tight steals that length from the edges and drags them inwards.

Tips & warnings

• A chopstick is thinner than most shop shuttles, so you can weave closer to the frame edge.
• The pointed end doubles as a needle for darning in the ends.
• For anything rug-sized, buy a real shuttle - this is small-scale work.