Weaving Techniques

Weaving Techniques || Rya Loops

Rya Loops | The Weaving LoomI love both rya knots and loops, but what about rya loops? If you haven’t heard of these, then you’re in for a treat.  The really cool thing about rya loops is that you use one continuous thread to make them. No cutting and tying thread after thread like with rya knots. I’m big on texture, so these rya loops are a really nice way to add some depth and interest to your weaves.

As always I weave upside down, starting with the top and working my way to the bottom. If you like to weave from the bottom to the top, then you can still follow these steps. The rya loops are made in the same way.

Here are the steps:

Rya Loops | The Weaving Loomstep 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.

Rya Loops | The Weaving Loomstep 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.

I’m working on a stop motion video of these steps, that I will share with you next week. Oh and if you haven’t seen my videos yet, th

The rya loops are really easy and a fun way to add short loops or really long loops at the bottom of your weaves. What do you think of them? Do you prefer the rya knots fringe at the bottom of a weave or do you think these rya knot loops would look better?

If you’d like to see more of my day-to-day weaving, follow along with my Instagram.

Happy Weaving!

Kate

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  • Kamille
    November 20, 2015 at 4:39 pm

    Hi Kate, and thank you so much for the tutorial. I’m following it right now but I have a question. Once you finish the first loop, do you continue creating rya knots on the same 2 warp threads or do you move to a new set of two? So do the knots increase along the weft or along the warp as you continue? I love your site and check it often for instructions and inspiration!

    Kamille

    • Kate
      November 21, 2015 at 11:15 am

      Hi Kamille! That is a great question. Both ways work, you can either keep putting rya knots on the same warp threads or you can stagger them. Personally I like to stagger my rya knots so that I get more coverage, but with both types you should put in 2 or 3 rows of plain weave before and after to lock them in. Let me know if you have more questions on this. I can send you some pictures that show what I’m talking about if you want.

  • Kamille
    November 20, 2015 at 9:50 pm

    Hi, it’s me again. I’m working from a cone of yarn and wondering how you keep it from getting super-twisty. Thanks again.

    Kamille

    • Kate
      November 21, 2015 at 11:20 am

      Hi again 😀 I actually don’t have a really good solution to keeping the yarn from getting twisty. Are you pulling the yarn straight up off the cone? That might help, but the yarn will get twisty anyway. Even when I’m not pulling off a cone or yarn ball my yarn still gets twisty while weaving. What I like to do is measure out thread, maybe 3 or 4 times around my hand to my elbow of the same arm and then I cut that amount of string from the cone or ball. I’ll just weave with that amount of yarn until it’s done and then get more if I need. I feel like this way I’m not always pulling on something, but my yarn still will get twisted as I go so I just try to ease the twist towards the yarn tail and away from the weaving area. Let me know if that doesn’t make sense or if your question was different then what I answered.

  • Moriyah
    January 29, 2016 at 1:37 pm

    Hi, I was just sitting down tonight to do your loops. I really like them. I was just wondering how to you start your first one? In the pix, you show after doing three or four loops. I am a newbie to weaving and love your website.

  • Moriyah
    January 29, 2016 at 1:50 pm

    Ok, I just saw your video and I see that you started your rya loop after a couple of plain weave rows. I want to do a circle of rya loops in the middle and it will be a different color. Not sure how to get it started n should I do two or three plain weaves and then go bit the raya? Oh, but I can’t do that on thr very top and bottombecause there would be room on the circle. Does that make sense?

    • Kate
      January 30, 2016 at 5:01 pm

      Hi Moriyah, I think I understand your question. Yes you can make the rya loops with a different color and no you wouldn’t have to do a plain weave first. Just start the rya loops like you would start any second color. Does that help?

  • judy
    April 5, 2016 at 6:56 pm

    Just tried a sample of them on my weave and after just one or two tries I got it (I hope)! Thanks!

    • Kate
      April 6, 2016 at 6:38 am

      Hi Judy! They are a little tricky, I still need to refresh the technique in my head before I do them if it’s been a while, but once you get going it becomes easy.

  • Stephanie
    August 3, 2016 at 4:39 pm

    I need help on this one Kate. I just can’t figure out what’s going on in these pictures and I’m hopeless with instructions when I can’t see something being done. The video hasn’t made it much clearer either. Oh dear me 🙇🏼🙇🏼

    • Kate
      August 4, 2016 at 6:12 am

      I know this one is a tricky one! I have plans to make a “live” action video of this technique, since so many others have also requested it. I hope to have it done soon so you can get to weaving it 🙂