I’m taking some time with my family this week, so I’m sharing another best of weaving technique. On Tuesday I shared how to make the pile weave, so it’s fitting that today I share another way to weave loops.
Rya loops are really cool, because you use one continuous length of yarn to tie these loops. You can then later cut the loops to make a rya fringe, or leave them as loops. Making the rya loops is a bit tricky at first, but you’ll get the hang of it quickly.
I have steps-by-step pictures and two videos for you! So hopefully you can get this technique down quickly!
Here are the steps:
step 1| place the thread over your warp strings in a ‘U’ shape. As you can see in the picture I’m using two threads as one, but you can use as many threads as you want.
step 2| bring a piece of the thread under two warp threads making a small ‘u’ shape inside the bigger ‘U’ shape. As you can see both sides of the small ‘u’ go under the two warp threads and then come up. Pull on the small ‘u’ loop and it will get larger as the big ‘U’ gets smaller. This creates your rya knot around the loop.
step 3| tighten the rya knot by pulling tight on the loop you created.
step 4| pull the thread tail to shorten the loop, if desired.
To continue making the rya loops, take the thread tail and place it over your warp threads in a ‘U’ shape again, repeating the steps above until you make as many as you want.
The good news is, I have a video on how to make the knots, so hopefully this will answer any questions you might have.
And there is also this older funny stop-motion video on making the rya knots that I made, which may or may not be helpful.
I’d love to hear if you’ve tried these rya knots before. Personally, I use the pile weave mostly in my weaving, but I think I should give rya knots more of a try. They can add a really interesting design to a weave. Which do you prefer to make, the pile weave or rya loops? Or maybe neither, because that is ok too!
Happy Weaving!
Kate
