Make Direct Warping Even Easier with a Spool Rack

About a year ago I decided to warp my rigid-heddle loom with a multi-colored warp that eventually became my Rule of Three Towels. For this first batch of towels, I kept my cones on the floor and tried my best to keep things organized as I direct warped. If you’ve ever direct warped using multiple colors and frequent color changes, you know it can get real messy real quick behind the heddle. I tried to keep tangles to a minimum, but still ended up with a bit of a mess.

So when I rewove my towels for Handwoven, I decided to take a different route and used a spool rack. When I tell you it was life-changing, I am not exaggerating. After years of keeping my cones in baskets, ice-tea jars, and other attempts at yarn-management containers during warping, I am now fully “team spool rack” any time I warp.

Spool Rack Basics

If you’ve never used a spool rack, let me explain to you how they work. Below you can see an example of a small spool rack. A dowel holds the spool (or cone) horizontally, and is locked in place on either side so the yarn put-up won’t fall off. You can unwind the yarn from the put-up as you warp without having to worry about it travelling around the room. If you’re working with multiple colors, your threads stay more organized because you don’t have to keep moving cones into position as you switch colors of warp.

Spool racks, like the small one shown here from Delightfully Dutch, hold spools and cones in place for easy unwinding. Photo by Matt Graves

While this example holds just one spool, you can buy spool racks that hold many, many more—you can even get ones that will hold dozens. Some spool racks orient the put-ups vertically—in those cases there’s often a thread guide to help keep threads from tangling during warping. Vertical spool racks are useful for cones that have only one open end, and sometimes you might also see them called cone stands. What size or style you choose depends on your weaving. For example, most rigid-heddle weavers probably don’t need a huge spool rack.

Benefits of a Spool Rack

What I can tell you for sure is that using a spool rack for my Rule of Three Towels was an absolute delight, and here’s why:

1. The thread unwound from the cones easily and evenly.

2. Because I wasn’t constantly moving and managing the cones, I was able to keep the threads more organized and tangles to a minimum.

3. The cones all stayed in place—I didn’t have to worry about them falling over or rolling under the table.

4. Using a spool rack reduced my total warping time by 50 percent. My first set of towels took at least 3 hours; my second set took about 90 minutes.

Do I recommend that any rigid-heddle weaver who direct warps try using a spool rack? Yes, absolutely I do! Does that mean you need to go out and buy one right away? Not at all! Spool racks are actually incredibly easy to DIY. I know this because I made the one I used from household items.

How to DIY a Spool Rack

For my spool rack I used a standard-sized milk crate and some dowel rods. I cut the rods so they would fit across the milk crate with a bit of overhang on either side. To prevent tangles during warping, I staggered the dowel rods from top to bottom and placed 1–2 put-ups on each dowel. I ended up with one cone that didn’t have a large enough hole to fit on a dowel, so I placed it on the floor of the spool rack. To help organize things even more, I pulled each thread through a different hole in the front side of the milk crate. Easy peasy!

Christina's made her spool rack from an old milk crate and some dowel rods.

Don’t happen to have a milk crate on hand? No problem—you can use any sturdy basket with holes on the sides large enough to hold your dowels. If you don’t have dowel rods on hand, or don’t fancy cutting them yourself, you can usually find dowels of different lengths at various hardware and craft stores—some hardware stores will even cut them to size for you.

I highly recommend giving a spool rack a try the next time you direct warp your rigid-heddle loom. I hope you find it as life-changing as I did!

Happy Weaving,

Christina