Equipment
As with most crafts the list of equipment available for weaving is endless. There’s always another gadget or gismo to make things easier, faster, better.
My own personal list of ‘must have’ gadgets is always growing!
However…….
Having been brought up by a hoarder, who’s motto has always been ‘you never know, I’m sure it’ll come in handy someday’, I’m always looking for cheaper (or preferably free) alternatives to most situations.
I draw the line at making whole loom out of plastic plumbing pipes and fixings, but have improvised several ‘essential’ items, for example;
Clockwise from top left: film cannisters, thread bobbins, dressmaking allowance guide,
mount board mini shuttles, kumihimo bobbins
On a pattern cutting and dressmaking course I did some years ago the teacher had us all make guides out of cardboard for measuring seam allowances. Once I took up weaving I found these invaluable for counting how many picks I was putting into each inch of weaving. This is vital to ensure that you will get the finished density of cloth you desire and that it is consistent along the length of cloth you are weaving.
Quite often I need/want to add in extra threads; to change a colour way/to give a denser weave in some areas/to repair broken threads in an existing warp.
For this I have several gadgets!
Old cotton bobbins can be used to wind long lengths of individual warp threads around.
Kumihimo braiding bobbins are invaluable for holding slippery threads. The silicone cover folds over trapping the delicate threads without damaging them.
Once the threads are held safely they need to be kept at the same tension as the rest of the warp, otherwise the weaving will be uneven in that area. Step up old fashioned camera film containers and the small change out of my purse!
The lids of the containers close very securely, too securely to be able to guarantee not damaging delicate yarns. They will hold a variety of denominations of coins allowing you to fine tune the weight in each container to be just right for the tension of the warp as a whole.
Unweighted Kumihimo bobbins in use
The hoarding parent mentioned above also loves to go skip diving (even though he’s in his 70’s!!) and has gathered a nice collection of wooden slatted blinds and the slats from under beds on the basis that ‘they’ll come in handy’.
Luckily Dad’s also a woodworker and hates sitting still, so I now have a wonderful collection of stick shuttles and spacing sticks for all my weaving needs!
A small selection of the 'Dadmade' stick shuttles and spacing sticks
In my most recent weaving I found a need for tiny shuttles to weave very narrow bands within a certain area of a larger warp. Finding a piece of artists mount board that had dirty marks on it in my weavery I decided to put it to good use. Voila, tiny stick/butterfly shuttles!
Mini shuttles made from mount board
I could go on to tell you about the metal uprights from an old cd rack that are used as second/third back beams to allow extra tensioning, the 'afro combs used to beat widely spaced/weft faced weaves, the cutlery rack from an old dishwasher used as a compartmentalised pen stand on my desk, the old playing cards turned into tablet weaving cards, the old panetone tin used to store my stick shuttles etc etc but the loom is calling me.
Time to weave!!
