Types of Looms

Every loom holds a warp under tension so you can weave weft through it. What changes from one type to the next is how much warp it holds, how it opens the shed, and if it's your hands or your feet doing the lifting. Those three things decide what you can make on it.

Below are the nine main types, roughly from simplest to most involved, and then how to pick one. If warp, weft and shed are new words, start with our what is a loom guide.

What this article covers:

• 9 Main Types of Looms
• How to Choose a Loom

9 Main Types of Looms

No loom does everything well. Here's what each one is good at.

1. Frame Loom

A frame loom is a rectangle with the warp wrapped around it. You weave by hand, row by row, with a needle, a stick shuttle or your fingers. The warp doesn't advance, so the piece can't be bigger than the frame. That keeps you to wall hangings, coasters, samples and small tapestries, but it also means you can warp one and be weaving the same afternoon. We sell frame looms from Ashford, Schacht, Louet and Beka.

2. Tapestry Loom

Tapestry looms are built for weft-faced picture weaving, where the weft covers the warp completely and you build the image one color area at a time. That takes a lot of warp tension, so they're heavier than a frame loom and usually stand upright, either on a table or on a floor stand. Many let you advance the warp, so the tapestry can end up longer than the loom is tall. It's slow work, and the people who weave tapestry tend to like it that way. Ours come from Schacht, Ashford and Glimakra.

3. Rigid Heddle Loom

Rigid heddle looms use one heddle with alternating slots and holes. Lift it and the threads in the holes rise above the rest. Lower it and they drop below. That gives you both sheds of plain weave, and the heddle doubles as the beater. The warp winds onto a back beam, so you can weave yards instead of inches. Handwoven magazine has a good rundown of what a rigid heddle loom can do.

This is the loom we suggest most often to someone who has outgrown a frame loom. Scarves, dish towels and fabric for simple tops are all easy to reach, and a second heddle or pick-up sticks add patterns later. Widths run from about 10 to 48 inches, and we carry them from Ashford, Schacht, Kromski, Glimakra, LeClerc and Beka.

4. Inkle Loom

Inkle looms weave narrow, warp-faced bands: belts, straps, lanyards, trim. The warp is one continuous loop around a set of pegs. Every other thread runs through a fixed string heddle, and you open the shed by pressing the free threads up or down by hand. Because the warp hides the weft, the pattern comes from the order you wind the colors on. They're small, they use very little yarn, and they're a good home for leftover bits of cotton and wool. We have them from Ashford, Schacht, Louet, Glimakra and LeClerc.

5. Table Loom

A table loom is a multi-shaft loom small enough to sit on a table, usually with four or eight shafts, each worked by a hand lever. Threading the warp through different shafts lets you weave twills, overshot, huck and other structures a rigid heddle can't easily make. Changing levers by hand is slower than treadling, but a table loom is a good way to learn multi-shaft weaving, and it fits in a car for workshops. Ours come from Ashford, Louet, LeClerc and Schacht.

6. Floor Loom

Floor looms are freestanding, with treadles tied to the shafts so your feet change the shed and your hands stay on the shuttle and beater. That's what makes them fast. You'll hear people talk about jack, counterbalance and countermarch looms, which are three different ways of linking the treadles to the shafts. Floor looms handle long warps and wide cloth, like yardage, rugs and blankets. They need floor space and some time to learn to dress. We carry Glimakra, Louet, Schacht, LeClerc and Ashford.

7. Knitting Loom

A knitting loom isn't a weaving loom at all. It's a ring or a bar of pegs. You wrap yarn around each peg and lift the lower loop over the upper one with a hook, which makes knit stitches instead of woven cloth. Round looms make hats and cowls, long looms make scarves and flat panels, and they're easy to pick up, especially if your hands don't get along with needles. Start with our guides on how to use a knitting loom and knitting loom patterns.

One thing that trips people up: the Ashford Knitters Loom is not a peg loom. Despite the name, it's a folding rigid heddle loom made for weaving with knitting yarn.

8. Backstrap Loom

One end of the warp ties to a post or a tree, the other to a strap around your hips, and you set the tension by leaning back. It's one of the oldest loom designs, and it's still how many weavers in Guatemala, the Andes and parts of Asia make cloth and bands. There's almost nothing to buy. The catch is practice, since your body is doing what the frame does on every other loom on this list.

9. Pin Loom

A pin loom is a small square or rectangle with pins around the edge. You wrap yarn around the pins in layers, then weave through them with a long needle to make one small square (the Schacht Zoom Loom makes 4 inch squares). Slip it off and start the next. Sew enough squares together and you have a scarf, a bag or a blanket. They travel well and use up leftover yarn.

How to Choose a Loom

Five questions sort most people out.

1. Skill Level

Buy for where you are now. If you're looking for weaving looms for beginners, a frame loom or rigid heddle loom lets you learn tension, edges and beating without a lot of setup. Multi-shaft table and floor looms make more sense once plain weave is second nature.

2. Project Goals

Pick the loom for the first thing you actually want to make. Wall art: a frame or tapestry loom. Scarves, towels and fabric: rigid heddle or table loom. Belts and straps: inkle. Rugs, blankets and yardage: floor loom. Squares to join later: pin loom.

3. Space

Some looms fit on your lap and some need a room. A floor loom wants its own footprint plus space to sit at the front and reach the back, so measure first. Rigid heddle, frame and inkle looms are fine in a small apartment, and several rigid heddle models fold with the warp on.

4. Portability

If you weave at guild meetings, classes or on trips, stay small: rigid heddle, inkle, frame or pin loom. A table loom travels too, as long as it's going by car. Floor looms stay put.

5. Complexity and Growth

Think about the second year, not just the first month. If you already suspect you'll want twills and drafts, a four-shaft table loom, or a rigid heddle loom that takes a second heddle, saves you buying twice. If you mostly want quick projects, a frame or rigid heddle loom may be all you ever need. Questions about a particular model are easiest by phone: 509-536-7746.