Today, Sunday the 15th of April was
Loom Day and for me I have been waiting for a long time for today. For my 30th birthday (which is in May) J asked me if there was anything that I would like. I was thinking hummm spinning wheel and J said no we don't have the space so jokingly I said loom and he said "huh, erh ok I guess" Those where the famous last words.
We looked online to see what was available and I love Ashford products and I was looking at the
knitters loom that folds but it only goes to 20 inches and I was thinking 'Well if I get a loom I'm probably going to want to weave not just scarves but cushion covers and more textile home things out of my stash' so in the end I decided on the
Ridgid Heddle 32 inch loom. Mostly because we were thinking that it would fit under the bed (and just in case your wondering it does!!)
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Loom from the box |
I very nicely asked Lisa in
This is Knit if I could order the loom and two weeks later I was bringing home my loom. It was meant to be, prefect timing as I was at my lowest with everything going on. As soon as I got home I shoved the furniture in the living room aside and ripped open the box. The above picture are the contents of the box and 45 minutes later I had this beauty:
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32 inch loom fully assembled |
I have absolutely no problem recommending an Ashford loom. It came with very detailed assembly instructions, weaving patterns for 4 types of loom and for some handspun yarns, a buyers catalogue for wheels and looms and most importantly a card with the name and photo of the person who packed and made my loom! Another lovely touch is on their website Ashford have a
series of tutorials on how to use their products so you are not left with a wheel or loom that you got as a present and can't use.
Saturday evening I set up a warp with
Silk Garden Sock which you can see in the picture below isn't it beautiful!
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Silk Garden Sock |
It was so addictive J had to have a go (I know it was my present but J was fascinated with how it worked)
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J Weaving |
Sunday I sat in my PJ's watching T.V. and just wove. I used silk garden as both the warp and weft yarn. Now at this point I would like to say that I mis-calculated *ahem* the amount of weft yarn I would need. I had assumed that I had 400 meters of yarn but silk garden is 300 meters. So I ran out of yarn with about 50 meters to go ( I had taken into account the waste from the fringe process), so I dived into my stash and found some pure hand spun wool that I inherited from a friend's mum. It was perfect!
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Scarf pre - washing |
I finished weaving after about 3 hours, I wasn't weaving constantly. I stopped for lunch and tea breaks but I was pulling a scarf off my new loom pretty soon after I started!. I let it soak in warm water with a little bit of conditioner and out came this beauty below. I am thrilled with my loom and my new scarf! The silk garden was a perfect choice the texture is amazing and the colour changes are subtle and light. I can't wait to try another colourway.
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Scarf post - washing |
I absoluely love it. Have been dying for a loom for ages. Now I want one even more. Looking forward to seeing what you make next.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this brilliant blog-post. Delighted to see it all coming together.
ReplyDeleteThank you :)
Deletehumm my next project is either a scarf in opal or blanket in boucle alpaca (oh yeah there is such a thing)
Oh wow, it's absolutely gorgeous! You seem to have picked weaving up very quickly :)
ReplyDelete