We retrieved my loom from Kentucky the weekend before Christmas. This involved renting an ENORMOUS minivan to make the trek. I always say you can fit an amazing amount in a Ford Focus, but it has it’s limits. The loom is in decent shape but definitely needed some TLC. Matt spent part of New Year’s day fixing the warping beam.
For the uninitiated here’s the short version of weaving lingo.
- Warp threads refers to the threads that run through the loom from back to front.
- Weft refers to the threads that run left to right, crossing over and under the warp threads to make cloth.
When you set up a loom, you measure out all the warp threads – collectively know as the warp – and wind them onto a beam at the back of the loom known as the warp beam. Generally, you measure out the whole warp at once and then wind it all on at once. The warp beam on this loom was a sectional warp beam, though – it has small pegs at 1-inch intervals so you can keep the warp threads evenly spaced and wind on the warp one section at a time.
Unfortunately, some of the pegs were broken probably from spending years folded up in a garage or attic. Matt got the broken dowel pegs out of the warp beam and I decided to remove the rest for now so I can do regular warping. Now all I need is my supply order from the Woolery (http://www.woolery.com/) and the warping board Matt is going to build me.