Spend some time gathering photos or samples of things that you find yourself enamoured with. I had that opportunity to try and play. If you don’t have the opportunity to borrow equipment, the next best thing is to buy your own equipment.Įven if you haven’t done a ton of weaving, there are bound to be fabrics that appeal to you. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to try a bunch of 4-shaft table and floor looms (including jack looms and counterbalance looms) before I decided to buy my own. In any case, you likely want to TRY weaving and PLAY with the process to judge the results and see if it’s something you’d like to pursue. Maybe you’re a knitter and you have tons of yarn stashed up, and maybe you’ve heard that weaving can use up yarn stash more quickly than knitting. It’s more likely that you’re curious about weaving and cloth that can be made on a loom. I was going through a spiritual awakening which included (among other things) starting down the path of becoming a weaver. ![]() At the time, there were a lot of things at play in my life, including celebrating a milestone birthday which caused me a lot of anxiety, disruption, and soul-searching. I absolutely understand that not every person who dips their toe in the waters of weaving is going to jump in with both feet and buy a brand new 45” wide multi-shaft floor loom. Five months later, I ordered a 44” wide 8-shaft floor loom from Louet in Holland and I was going around telling people that I was going to become a weaver. ![]() But within moments of winding a warp and throwing the shuttle, I was hooked. I didn’t know the difference between warp and weft. In January 2006, I began taking weaving classes at Place des Arts as a complete and utter beginner. Whenever people email me to ask what loom to buy, I find that I always start by asking “what do you want to weave?” And then the question after that is, “how much space do you have?” And “how much do you want to spend?” And my advice here is to first know yourself and then know your limit (and play within it). At it’s most fundamental, it’s about balancing your wants and your needs. So I think the decision making process for buying a loom is guided by two things: your desires and your limits. I can get that loom and I can do that.” The loom that I chose is also a loom that you can frequently find on Craigslist or other marketplaces, so it’s accessible. I wanted to get a loom to teach weaving so that anyone can look at what I make and say, “I can do that. My needs might be different than your needs, but mainly, I needed a loom that is a multi shaft loom so that I can teach different weave structures, a floor loom so that I can be efficient, and a relatively affordable loom so that my teaching can be accessible. My goal was not to find a fancy loom to lust over… because loom lust is real… but how do I find the right loom for me and my needs.Īs I mentioned last week, we are getting a new studio and in this new studio will be a separate fibre arts studio where I’ll be setting up a new loom for teaching. Who makes affordable and accessible looms? What kind of support is available for the looms. I wanted to see who makes jack looms, who makes countermarche and counterbalance looms, and who is making dobby looms. I already have looms from Schacht, Louet, and Ashford, but I also did some research into other loom manufacturers like Glimakra, Harrisville, Leclerc, and AVL. So when I began the process of buying a loom, I did research the different loom manufacturers to see what was available. I recently went through the process of buying a new loom and so I wanted to lay out my thought process and considerations and maybe it will help you with your own decision making process. Today, I want to talk about how to buy a loom. At a certain point, you are going to want to invest a little in the direction of your craft… so that’s what we’re talking about on today’s episode of Taking Back Friday. Whatever you want to weave, it’s unlikely that you will want to weave on a cardboard loom for the long haul. But what do you do if it does capture you? Maybe you want to make giant wall hangings or shawls or dishtowels. With nothing but a piece of cardboard, you can make a simple frame loom and see if the idea of weaving captures you. I have talked before about getting started with weaving for free. ![]() But another big resource that is a challenge is how much fibre arts equipment costs… especially weaving equipment. We talk about time and the challenge of making time or finding time to make things. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been asking many of you in this fibre arts community about what struggles and challenges you face.
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