Monday, November 10, 2008

Complete Beginner





Knitting to spinning to weaving. Seems like a natural (expensive) progression. For weeks I have researched all the rigid heddle looms on the market in order to get the one that would offer me the most options for future projects. I settled on the 20 inch Ashford Knitter's Loom so that if, one day, I am bored with making scarves out of my leftover bits of stash I could graduate to shawls. And besides, anything with Knitter's in the name can't be that difficult, right? The instructions state that I could make a scarf within a few hours of taking the loom out of the box. After several hours out of the box, I was feverishly looking for HELP on the web. Why hasn't ANYONE posted a video of someone actually using one of these things? We all understand the concept behind weaving. In and out, up and down, but tying 16 pieces of yarn onto the watchamacallits was making my brain hurt. It's funny how the words up and down can have so many meanings depending on what you are actually doing. There were also lots of other little surprises along the way. For example, you need lots of tables to clamp the thing onto which have to be a specific distance apart. Then you have to wrap the roller things up with a ton of copy paper. And then finally, when all is said and done, you need a friend to help you roll all that tied yarn up. Good grief. You need to be an octopus. I saw people on the web substituting soda cans. I used ankle weights. To make matters worse, I still don't really know where the down position of the heddle is and by the looks of my ugly little first project that is going to be a big problem. I don't want to discourage anyone from buying a loom. Right or wrong, I am having fun with it. Just be warned that it takes alot more than instructions and common sense to figure this stuff out.

2 comments:

  1. I've always wanted to learn to weave, but I think I'll stay away from it for now. Good luck. I like the colors of your first project!

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  2. Thanks!
    I never actually had the urge to learn to weave but I don't like the weight of knitted scarves. I am hoping to get at least one decent scarf out of this huge investment!

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