Looms and Weaving

The image below shows how the loom looked when I first got it.

The metal part is still a little rusty so that needs treating but I think I've mostly got it set up properly now.

Although, I do havbe a lot of extra bits of wood left over that I'm not sure what to do with. I know some of them are for winding the weft on to.

I worked out that two of the wooden rods were held in place at either end of the loom by the straps on the fabric and the heddle goes somewhere in the middle.

I believe the heddle is that metal thing that's all rusty.

The threads go through the heddle and they're knotted onto the wooden rod on one side. I'm not sure how the threads are fastened onto the other side but I guess that they are rolled up into the fabric wrapped on the ends of the loom.

Peg looms are really easy to use.

If you know a little bit about woodwork you can easily make your own peg loom. All you need is one block of wood, a drill and some dowelling.

The pegs need to slip in and out of the main piece of wood and they need small holes drilled into them through which you thread string to be your warp. Once you've threaded your string through remember to knot all the strings together.

You wrap your fabrics, yarn or wool in and out of the pegs and when you've filled the pegs you gently lift them off of the main piece of wood and slip your fabrics/yarn/wool (the weft) off onto the string underneath.

Pull your excess length of string through the weft and then replace the peg and start again with the weaving.

In the images below you can see that I've used all sorts of bits including zips cut from old discarded clothing and pockets from an old coat - I wanted to experiment with using bits and pieces that might still be recogniseable as recycled clothing in the end product.

I used my peg loom to make a bag by just stringing up half of the loom. I made a long, thin piece of woven fabric and then wove it into a bag afterwards.

The thick fabric bits gave the bag a lovely "nest" sort of feel.

Below you can see my bead loom and a belt that I made years ago.

I've been toyuing with the idea of using this loom to weave really delicate threads. Maybe it would be interesting to make a piece that has a mix of beads and threads?

If you want to make woven fabric you don't need to buy an expensive loom.

The video below shows you how to use cardboard as a loom.