Monday, March 17, 2014

What do I think about my new loom?

I've had a chance to really play with my Ashford Table Loom now, and I have to say it's great.  This loom is a perfect match for my brain, body and ability.



I drew a sketch on a scrap of paper, and challenged myself to translate it into weaving.  After a few false starts (it helps to have one heddle per warp thread if you know what I mean), I figured it out.  


This is the easiest loom to warp that I've tried so far.  I warped front to back, using the SAORI cross holder I showed you earlier.  It worked fantastically well.  Such a simple idea, and yet I've never seen anyone use it outside of a SAORI studio.  
So I took my warp threads, one at a time and put them through the reed, then I threaded them through the heddles in the order I guessed the pattern would be like.  Easy peasy.  Especially easy because there are only a choice of 4 heddles to choose from, and I can count to four pretty well most days.  

As for threading, this loom is pretty ergonomic.  Unlike a large floor loom, I didn't have any trouble with certain body parts (aka, my ahem, rather large endowment at the front) getting in the way.  I sat myself and the loom on the floor, and just went at it.  After a few hours, when my back was tired, I put my loom on my bed, which is one of those low Ikea ones, and sat on the floor in front of it.  It's the perfect hight.  


Here's the fabric I made for my sample.  As you can see, it's eclectic.  I tried different kinds of yarn from spindle spun woolen thread to cotton, to commercial purple.  The best fun was playing around with different treadling patterns including 2/2 twill, 1/3 twill, 3/1 twill, plain weave, SAORI weaving... anything I could think of.   

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I know very little about looms and weaving. That is why the loom looks like a harp to me. The result is nice, could be kept in the middle of the table and a candle on it. Or it could be the fabric indian warriors kept up just by a belt, to hide their treaures. (Or part of a west or a shopping bag.)

I have been thinking what kind it were if wool thread and something else is mixed. Mixing could be done by plying 2 different kind of yarns together, or like here - in the experimental fabric is done. I belive people has done it many times and maybe the result looks odd. But could it be practical fabric in use? It were nice to know how peoples experimets have gone.

Jani