Weaving Techniques || Rya Knots

Rya Knots are what you most often find at the bottom of a weave to create a fringe. However, the rya knot can be placed where ever to create a more unique and interesting composition. These knots are also used when making a shaggy carpet texture, because the knot holds the thread ends in place.

I personally weave from the top down, so I will put my rya knots in upside down. However, there are a lot of weavers I know that work bottom up. I recommend that you always put a few plain weave rows in to give your rya knots stability. For this example I’m starting from the bottom up.

I wove three rows of plain weave as a support. Next I added my rya knots. In my example I used four strands of worsted weight thread to make a medium thickness (learn more about yarn weight here). To create the rya knot you will need to use at least two warp threads for each knot.

I used four warp (two on each side) threads since I’m making a more medium knot. The number of warp threads you go across will effect the width of your rya knot. If you are making a wider rya knot you will need a thicker thread weight or more numbers of strands, otherwise it can make your rya knot look limp.

Here are the steps to creating the rya knots:

Step 1 – I placed my four strands of yarn over my warp threads.

Step 2 – bring the right side of your yarn behind and around your warp threads (I’m going around two warps in my example. Next bring the left side of your yarn behind and around your other warp threads so that the ends meet up in the middle.

Step 3 – Since we are starting with the rya knots (bottom up weaving) we pull the end pieces below the top knot area. If you were ending with the rya knots (top down weaving) you would pull the end pieces above the top knot area.

Quick Tip: before I pull my ends down and tighten the top knot, I match up both sides of the end pieces and then pull evenly, so that my knot ties with all ends at about the same length. Trimming is usually required for a more uniform fringe, but this helps not waste as much thread.

After you added your row of rya knots, I recommend weaving at least two rows of plain weave to stabilize the knots. You can then create the rest of your piece as you like. It is also possible to add another row of rya knots above.

As always I recommend that when you’re starting out be open to experimenting until you find the amount of thread and size of rya knots you like. This can also change depending on the look of the piece you are working on.

Check out my time-saving tip on cutting strands for rya knots here.

In one of my earlier weavings I skipped the step of adding support rows under my rya knots and had to do a crazy tying of warp threads together (see picture below) in order to gain stability in my weave after cutting it off the loom. Trust me you do not want to do this, lessons were learned!

Do you like how rya knots look in weaves? Have you tried making them before? I’d love to hear from you!

Happy Weaving!

Kate

For more fun, follow me here ->