My Weaving History

In case you want to know a little bit about me.  :)

I began weaving on a potholder loom as a child… a metal one with jersey loops.  Yes, that counts!

In the summer of 2008 I visited Conner Prairie, an interactive history park.   There was a woman working on a tape loom.  I thought that’s really cool, I want to go home and build one of those.  I researched it online and realized that it would be easier to build an inkle loom.  So, I did, out of a two-by-four and two dowels… for about six dollars.   That held me off for a few months.

Then, September 2008, I took a weaving class from Tabby Tree Weavers in Arcadia, Indiana.  Linda taught me the basics of weaving on a floor loom.  I love my floor loom, the rhythmical pounding of the beater, and  I almost always have a project on it.

However, I couldn’t travel with my floor loom, so that led me to purchase a rigid heddle loom in August 2009 (a Kromski Harp), and I completed thirty-three projects between August 2009 and October 2010.  I like it because it’s easy to warp, easy to weave on, and very portable… even folds in half.

Oh, and in October 2009, I also found a great deal on an old eight-inch Structo… really, a Dick Blick Artcraft.  All these looms reside in my living room, but three of them are quite unobtrusive.  The floor loom is the one that, when visitors walk in, say “what is that?”

More on my looms later, along with pictures.

Also, I have a paternal great-grandfather and maternal great-grandmother who had looms.  They were both rug looms, as far as I can tell.  My dad has asked me “what’s Slovak for ‘great big honking weaving loom?” as that’s what their looms were.  So, weaving is in my blood.