Tag: Weaving

Related to Weaving

Rainbow Warp on a Rigid Heddle Loom

Instead of the usual pressing, packing, and preparing for Market on Friday,  I spent a few hours dressing this rigid heddle loom.

Photo of rainbowcolored warp on small rigid heddle loom
Rigid Heddle loom ready to weave

It’s a 16″ Ashford – one of the ones I use to teach beginning weaving.

And while I don’t normally weave on a RH loom, it offers the perfect solution because:

  • My other looms are literally tied up with other projects.
  • It’s small and easy for me to bring along if I decide to demonstrate weaving somewhere (like at Farmers’ Market)
  • I can indulge in the pleasure of weaving outside on a summer day.
  • It makes a beautiful wall hanging whenever I’m not weaving.
  • It’s fast and easy to set up, so I can get information about an idea sooner than if I wait to use a floor loom.
  • With the majority of my work destined for sale,  I can have a separate project that’s  just-for-me.

And yes, it is raining again.

So this perfectly simple little loom will stay inside today.  And after I weave a few inches just-for-me, it can hang on a wall.

All dressed up (like a rainbow) – and ready to go.

Joanne's blog signature, Pine Ledge Fiber Studio

I love my Fanny!

The one I started with was fairly  small.  But after a few years – having a bigger one seemed,  – natural.

Photo of small floor loom
27" Fanny

You can see a photo of my other Fanny here.

(So much for my first attempt at writing an attention grabbing headline, eh?)

Other proud owners of Leclerc weaving equipment will recognize  Fanny as the name of a floor loom.   But it’s not a current favorite  – especially with new weavers.

Someone browsing through ads in weaving magazines is unlikely to come across a picture of one.  These days, the Fanny seems old-fashioned.

Which is part of its appeal for me.

If you’re unfamiliar with weaving:  – The system that creates a space for the shuttle to move back and forth between the warp threads in this loom is a counter-balance system. It looks and acts a lot like the looms in use a couple of hundred years ago.

My other floor loom, a Leclerc Colonial, really does look like what you might imagine an Early American, Colonial-type-person using – to produce household and clothing fabrics.   (Though maybe not in a room this color).

Photo of LeClerc Colonial floor loom
My 45" Leclerc Colonial

Sometimes I imagine myself as that person – laboring to improve the well-being of my family – making useful cloth.

I know that I feel a connection to certain periods in history – when the work of the family included weaving and spinning.

Working in, on, at, and around these looms, I feel very comfortable.    And at home.

If you love to weave, – what ever the make or model of your loom, whether it’s old or new, big or small – you’re likely to feel intimately involved.

Yikes!  Maybe this conversation needs to contiue – with another attention grabbing headline, like:

Who’s got the biggest one?

Joanne's blog signature, Pine Ledge Fiber Studio