I just didn’t understand it and there was no freedom in it for me. ![]() “My grandmother tried to teach me to knit and ended up telling me I was hopeless. ![]() “I had tried pottery and cross-stitching, but everything called for specific patterns,” Judy says. She was in dire need of a hobby when she discovered a local weaving course. In fact, she never even tried weaving until she was married and home raising her one-year-old son. Judy swears she never once made a pot holder. Within a few weeks, Mom ceased being impressed, and I didn’t know what else to make, so I threw away the loom and retired early. It wasn’t long before I filled the kitchen with a colorful assortment of more useless pot holders. And shortly thereafter, I bought myself a weaving kit complete with fabric ties and plastic, red loom. There was the set of square pot holders I made in grade school. She’s the co-owner of a local weaving shop and my instructor. “Have you ever woven before?” Judy Steinkoenig asks. There is even a computer program now, called Combby 8, that allows you to design your own pattern and transmit it to your loom it will automatically pick up all of the threads you selected for your individual pattern. Exotic mohair and silk yarns can cost as much as $10 an ounce. Professionals may spend as much as $3000 on a loom, an apparatus that speeds up the over-and-under process by raising the preselected threads. As a beginner, less than $10 got me on my way it was enough to buy some cheap yard and cover the cost of wood and hardware for a homemade loom frame. How much time and money you spend is entirely up to you. Home Organization News, Blog, & Articles.Energy Efficiency News, Blog, & Articles.You create the ratchets by cutting two circles 8 cm in diameter, in a 13 mm thick board, divide it in 16 parts and create the cogs by cutting it perpendicular to the axis, 12 mm in length, and then cutting it diagonally between cogs. On one side ( or both sides if you want to) there is a ratchet gear ( 8 cm in diameter) in both beams in order to maintain the warp stretched when you are weaving, and to roll up the cloth around the front beam. Then I cut all the lateral parts and put them all together. I had to make two ratchet gears, which aren´t easy to cut. I drew all the parts needed and started cutting it. I had to figure out all its characteristics…įirst I tried to understand all the details in the photo and then I started looking for bits of scrap wood I could use, without spending much money on it, as I didn´t know if I were able to make it. ![]() I found a type I wanted and the photo was a small one. It would be enough to weave cloth 80 centimetres across. ![]() So I decided to make one 80 centimetres wide and 60 centimetres long. These blocks have three indented parts in order to support the heddle in the three normal positions: resting position when it is not working, up position and down position to make space to pass the shuttle with the weft.Īfter having decided on the type of loom, I had to decide the size of the thing, because there are different measures and the things you can do with them are different as well. The lateral boards have two rounded tips ( 13,5 cm in height) to include both cloth beams: one upfront and another in the back.Īlmost at two-thirds of the lateral boards, towards the back, we have the heddle blocks, one on each side. The structure of a Rigid Heddle Loom is quite simple: two lateral (62cm x 13,5 cm) 2cm thick boards linked by 2 x 4 cm slats at the bottom part. And I made one and tried it with a scarf for my granddaughter.īut the real goal was a larger loom and I spend some time on the internet studying different types of looms and discovered one that is called the Rigid Heddle Loom, which seemed quite easy to make. First I looked for small handlooms to knit scarves. Now, being over sixty and with a 5-year-old granddaughter, I decided I had to give it a try.
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