Select books HERE then in checkout enter the discount code “HOLIDAYBOOKS” to get 30% off if you order any two print books from the website.
Paddle
Give the Gift of Weaving Books! A Free Book When You Order My New Edition of Weaving for Beginners
Go HERE to order the new edition of Weaving for Beginners: an Illustrated Guide.
Read about this new edition in my post of October 20, 2025 HERE
In the cart, HERE enter the discount code “WARPING” to get a free copy of Warping Your Loom & Tying on New Warps by Peggy Osterkamp when you order Weaving for Beginners. (Remember to ADD BOTH BOOKS TO THE CART in order to get the free book.)
About Warping Your Loom & Tying on New Warps:
In Book 2, learn how to prepare your loom for weaving — beginning at the back of the loom. You will learn how to beam on, thread, and sley the reed. Also: chapters on sectional beaming, tying on new warps, knots, and adjusting jack, counterbalance and countermarch looms. Step-by-step instructions and sections at the ends of chapters for quick reference. Having Peggy’s books at your loom is like having a patient teacher at your side.
Fourth edition ©2021, revised edition; 206 pages, over 200 illustrations.
Give the Gift of Weaving Books! A Free Book When You Order My New Edition of Weaving for Beginners.
Go HERE to order the new edition of Weaving for Beginners: an Illustrated Guide.
Read about this new edition in my post of October 20, 2025 HERE.
In the cart, HERE enter discount code “WINDING” to get a free copy of Winding a Warp & Using a Paddle by Peggy Osterkamp when you order Weaving for Beginners. (Remember to ADD BOTH BOOKS TO THE CART in order to get the free book.)
Information about this book can be found on my website under the tab: Books/DVD HERE
Summer Sale: 30% OFF – My Red Books Are Packed with Information NOT in the Beginning Book
I wrote these 3 red books to pass on the production weaving techniques I learned in a Production Weaving class at Pacific Basin School of Textiles in the 1970’s. Jim Ahrens was the teacher. At the time he was also teaching John Violet how he built his production looms. That was the beginning of AVL looms.
I reminded myself that there is a lot of information in my 3 red books when I went looking for shuttle information in Book #3: Weaving & Drafting Your own Cloth. I was having shuttle trouble while weaving the cloth for my vest woven with the Sunday Comics.
I wrote the first book Winding a Warp & Using a Paddle with one of my production weaving students, Carol Hillestad. We lived in New York City and passed drafts across the subway platform gates. I visited her in her office in one of the World Trade Towers! I gave her the info, then she wrote it for the text. We decided if it couldn’t be said in writing, we would need an illustration. I published it in 1992. In the subsequent editions a lot more illustrations were added! See below for some illustrations in Book #1.
Summer Sale Book 1 – 30% off. Discount applied in cart – Order HERE
Why use a paddle?
“More than two ends will inevitably braid up on each other, as you know all too well if you have ever tried knitting with three or more colors. By the end of the row, you have a tangle of yarns to untwine.”
There is a whole chapter on sett including 14 pages of Sett Charts with entries for upholstery, production weaving, clothing, woolens, and delicate fabrics. Collapse weaving uses the “delicate” sett in general.
A warp comb can be made to order to use as a raddle for fine threads. “A commercially made warp comb, or drawing in comb, is another form of raddle and looks just like a reed, except that it’s only about two inches tall and the top comes off. These are available from companies that manufacture reeds.
Book #2, Warping Your Loom & Tying On New Warps was first published in 1995.
I always envisioned a big book like the Collingwood book, but was afraid it would never get done. That’s why I wrote one book at a time. There is so much in it because I was really afraid that it would be my last book. Sharon Alderman, one of the editors told me , “There is stuff in the book that doesn’t belong there.” See below some of the illustrations from Book #2.
Summer Sale Book 2 – 30% off. Discount applied in cart – Order HERE
Photo 8 of 8
Book #3, Weaving & Drafting Your Own Cloth was published in 2005.
I put in them all that I knew that I’d learned from Jim Ahrens and probably some of what I learned from my teaching. See below some of the illustrations in Book #3.
Summer Sale Book 3 – 30% off. Discount applied in cart – Order HERE
Think About Using a Paddle – Free PDF
Since I sent out over 60 copies of my Book #1: Winding a Warp & using a Paddle for my Holiday Gifts, I thought I would point readers to the wealth of information that I wrote about using a paddle. This post (Weaving Tip) includes the complete Chapter 10 which has important information for using any type of paddle. Following that in the book are separate chapters for the two types of paddle. There are descriptions of different types of paddles, too.
If you didn’t get a free book over the holidays, here is your chance to get your own copy 50% off the regular price. This offer will go until February 1. I’ve taught many weavers how to use paddles and everyone feels so empowered afterwards. I hope you will want to try it. I tell you the limitations as well as the reasons why you would want to use one. [if viewing this post in an email and the links below do not work just click here]
©2005 • 3rd printing, revised edition; 138 pages; 195 illustrations. Lie-flat wire-0 binding • $39.95 > January Special 50% Off = $20.00
CLICK HERE to download for free introductory chapter: “Using a Paddle” or click the PayPal button below to order the book.
Weaving Keynote Speech
I spent the month of March preparing my keynote speech for the northern California weaving conference, CNCH. It will be May 17-20 at the Oakland Convention Center. It was a lot of work but fun figuring out what I could say in 1/2 hour. Believe me, there was a lot I had to relegate to the cutting room floor. It was hard to give up so many ideas. Maybe we can make a video and put it on line!
April will be devoted to preparing for my two classes and a retrospective of my work. I’ve already made the list for the exhibit for the labels, but now I need to be sure every piece is prepared and ironed, etc. I’m honored to have this recognition.
The two classes are about collapse weaving and supplementary warp–two of my favorite things. (I’ve signed up for CNCH 2013 to teach them again–also about using the paddle.
Using a Paddle with a Warping Reel
I received a comment asking about how to use a paddle with a vertical warping reel. In my Book #1, Winding a Warp and Using a Paddle I do discuss this. Here is a clip from the paddle chapter.
WHERE TO PLACE THE PADDLE
You want the paddle to be easy to reach, so when you get to the lease pegs, you can easily make the lease and put it onto the pegs.
Other than being clamped to something
approximately at the center of the warping
board as in Figure 118, below, the paddle can be clamped to the bottom of the warping board itself if the height of the board is convenient for you.
Clamping a paddle at a height close to the
pegs on a reel is shown in Figure 119a.
Clamping it to the back of a chair works well, too. See Figure 119b.
Also, see below where to place the paddle at a warping board.
Warping Paddles
For many weavers, “paddle” is a mysterious word. Perhaps they’ve tried and never quite figured out how to make it work. It may have seemed awkward, confusing—but always seductive. How liberating to be able to warp multiple ends at once! But keeping one thread organized and moving freely onto the warping board or reel can be a challenge—how much
more dexterity it must take to manage four or six or a dozen! But that is exactly the advantage of using a paddle. The paddle lets you measure many threads with every pass up and down the board or reel. Becoming proficient with the paddle need not take any special dexterity—in fact, its use has developed precisely because it acts as an extension of your own hand. See the Weaving Tip: Why Use a Paddle?
See Chapter 1: Using a Paddle, in my Book #1, Winding a Warp & Using a Paddle.
Heck Block for Warping Reels
Jennifer asks for a quick way to warp multiple threads at a time. The most available method for weavers today is to use a paddle. I have a chapter on using various types in my Book #1, “Winding a Warp & Using a Paddle.”
Jim Ahrens’ warping mill which I use in my studio has a heck block–a marvelous (and old) mechanism that he made. I am warping 10 ends at once while making a thread-by-thread cross (lease).
This is from Page 16 of my Book #1 ,” Winding a Warp & Using a Paddle.” I don’t know if anyone makes them now, AVL did for awhile. You might look them up in old weaving books from Europe.
The heck block
The heck is a mechanical way to spread your warp at precisely spaced intervals along the frame of a warping reel. It moves up and down on a vertical support that stands next to the reel, or if the reel is horizontal, it moves back and forth on a support alongside the reel. The central
support of the reel extends beyond the reel and turns with it: a cord wound around this support is attached by a pulley to the heck.
As you turn the reel to measure out your warp, the cord unwinds, and the heck block moves along the length of the reel. As you turn the reel for the return trip, the cord winds back round the pipe, drawing the heck back along its support. Multiple warp ends, which are threaded
into a leasing and tensioning device on the heck block, are carried with the heck
and so are laid down on the reel automatically.