In the last year or so, I’ve got into tapestry weaving. I’ve always been put off weaving by the space and money taken up by the loom.

But if you are doing something small, you can get away with a basic frame.

Most of these involve wrapping the warp thread round the top and bottom of the frame to keep it in place. This means that either the weaving has a fringe at both ends, or there is a lot of darning in to do.

Or so I thought, but then I found an online class for fringeless weaving. You wind your weft round a jig, then attach it to the loom using an auxiliary weft.

This is my jig. I reckon I can use it for three sizes. Small, medium, and large. I’ve joined the pipes together using plumbing fittings, and then cut through the pipe to allow the jig to be removed once the warp is on the loom. The parts of the jig are held in place by dowelling inside the pipes, which stop them from moving from side to side. The tension of the warp holds it together in the other direction. The warp is help in place by an auxiliary warp, which can be reused in the next tapestry.

Once you have the auxiliary weft in place, you need to adjust the tension before you start weaving. My usual loom doesn’t have this facility, but I found a nice simple one online. There is a slight delay in implementing this plan, because as you can see, it came ready warped.

So now I’m trying another experiment on that warp. Waste not want not. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode. But don’t hold your breath…