Little Looms

WHEN I WAS FIRST LEARNING HOW TO REALLY COOK, I discovered that small touches can make a big difference in elevating a meal. Caramel is lovely, but salted caramel is divine. A squeeze of lemon or a splash of special vinegar can suddenly make a boring dish sparkle. When I began weaving, I learned the same lesson: adding even the smallest “extra” can take a project to an entirely new level. My first few weaving projects were scarves, all of which I finished with overhand knots to secure the fringe. I thought the scarves were pretty, but they lacked something. I bought a fringe twister and realized that the simple act of twisting my fringe made an enormous impact on my projects: they looked so much more professional. In later years,…

Pom-Pom Maker When adding multiple pom-poms to a project, a pom-pom maker comes in handy. The sturdy Llamallooma from Betz White is a fun option with its laser-cut llama shape made from ¼-inch Baltic birch. Simply wrap your yarn, tie it tight, trim, and voilà—a 2- to 2½-inch pom-pom is born. The pom-pom maker comes with fully illustrated instructions and can also be used for making tassels. betzwhite.com Tassel Makers Pick your favorite fiber animal or, better yet, pick the tassel size you need from the selection of six tassel-maker sizes from Katrinkles that range from the 1-inch bunny tassel to the 4-inch goat tassel (pictured here) to the camel-sized 6-inch tassel. The three smaller sizes (bunny, alpaca, and sheep) make 1- to 3-inch tassels and are available as a set, while the…

Eugene, OR: Glimåkra USA, 2018. Paperback, 55 pages. $18. ISBN 978-0932394125 Weaving books were few and far between in 1978. The Last Whole Earth Catalog, bible for back-to-the-landers, mentions Mary Black’s and Peter Collingwood’s books and a skimpy but popular little booklet from England by Elsie G. Davenport. Of course, there was Marguerite P. Davison’s A Handweaver’s Pattern Book, too. But it was a good time for weaving, and for independent publishing. Into the void came a strikingly handsome, timely little volume, Finishes in the Ethnic Tradition, by Suzanne Baizerman and Karen Searle. Both authors were weavers, both working in the Mayan Collection at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Suzanne was curator, Karen a dedicated volunteer. Both were struck by the elegant finishing and embellishing techniques of the textiles in the collection.…

Lunatic Fringe Yarns recently added two metallic yarns to their fiber offerings, Abigail Gimp and Abigail Philos. Both yarns are sold in 1 oz cones and come in a range of colors, but the two metallics function very differently while adding a unique shimmer to handwoven fabric. For all my samples, I combined the metallics with 10/2 and 5/2 pearl cotton, also from Lunatic Fringe Yarns. I found that blending Abigail Gimp and Abigail Philos with a second fiber was the most successful way to incorporate both yarns into handwoven fabric. For the first five samples I focused primarily on Abigail Gimp, using it in both warp and weft. For samples 1–3, I alternated 10/2 pearl cotton with Abigail Gimp in the warp to get consistent tension. For the next two…

Tapestry weaving is a wonderful way to create images of all kinds, and as your technical skills grow, so does your understanding of the limits of the medium. For instance, the grid of warp and weft plays a significant role in the way images look. Factors such as warp sett and weft yarn choices are important, and the way the weft packs in and compresses as the weaving progresses also influences woven shapes. Understanding how shapes are formed with tapestry will give you confidence to design and weave almost any image imaginable. Sometimes your planned design has shapes with diagonal movements, and being skilled at weaving different angles comes in handy. The method of making angles described here is meet and separate rather than an interlocking method. In meet and separate,…

As a weaver and a maker, setting goals has always been important to me. Goals lead me to the next project and spark inspiration. I remember one of my first weaving goals: straight selvedges. Selvedges are often what I notice first, so right off the bat, I set out to practice getting cleaner selvedges. I practiced and practiced, learned tricks, and got better. It took time, but my selvedges slowly improved. My weaving journey began exclusively on floor looms. Fast-forward a couple of years, and I was introduced to a whole new world of looms: rigid-heddle, inkle, and tapestry looms, each of which requires different tricks for clean selvedges. Here, I am sharing tricks that work well for getting clean selvedges on a rigid-heddle loom. THE METHOD I love weaving samples; with each…