I got a new loom!! this thing is SO FUCKING COOL!! It's the "Bloom Loom" from Clover and it's technically a rigid heddle loom, 40 cm (15.7"). It has so many neat features! (you can buy it from japan through amazon)
First- the heddle itself! How it's described in the instruction manual is translated as "feather". It is a triangular shaped piece that has slots where the yarn pops into. Rotating it is what makes the sheds. Since the yarn just pops in, you can adjust the warp in the middle of weaving! And you don't have to go back and thread the holes after you've threaded the slots while warping, so the process is faster.
Second- the included warping board. The cross beam stabilizer at the bottom of it holds pegs so you can wind the warp while threading the heddle. I guess people call that hybrid warping? It makes it so much more accessible for me! I can hold the loom in my lap instead of having to stand at a warping board or walk laps around the room with a warping peg.
If you're wondering "wouldn't the strings at the far left or right of the heddle be a lot longer because of trigonometry?" I included a picture to show the difference in length- it's honestly pretty negligible. (the picture with the blue cardstock)
Third- the back "apron bar" is clicked into place as you're warping, then when you're done, it slides down to rest against the back roller so you can pinch a piece of paper in there, which holds the paper steady as you begin to roll the warp up.
Fourth- the ... I guess you could call them shed sticks. They make a tensioning device!
Fifth- the knobs for advancing the warp are very large and easy to grab with my hands. I don't have any grip strength issues or joint pain with it.
Sixth- the front beam has a little bar and it rotates under rather than over the roller. This makes sure that your sheds are always the same height and aren't affected by how much cloth you've rolled onto the beam.
Seventh- the warp is secured at the front with clips that have combs in them. So you comb through the warp to evenly distribute it under the clips. They are fairly secure and the instruction book says you can wrap rubber bands around them if you're weaving with something particularly slippery. While the clips are very fast, I find it difficult to get even and consistent tension across the width of the warp. I plan to try lashing the warp to the beam next time instead.
The loom is sooooo much more accessible for me compared to other models and I would highly recommend it if you have arthritis or other disabilities. The only thing is it's heavier than some other looms- the wood frame is very thick and solid.
About the project on the loom-
it's just a bit of practice with scrap acrylic. It was supposed to be like a test necktie? But ended up about 20 inches longer than expected? But I wove a cute little kitty cat motif!
I don't know what you call this technique, I only found a picture with no description and reverse engineered it. It's like log cabin pick-up? color and weave pick-up? How it works is that you thread the warp in alternating colors and the weft is mirrored to that- which makes stripes. Then find or draw a motif that is only two colors. Each pixel of the motif is two warp threads (over one and under one) and two weft threads (one pick each color). For each row of the motif, pick up the pixel by alternating which color thread to go over and then under and then do the same for the other color of weft. The motif will have stripes perpendicular to the rest of the weaving. It might be vertical or horizontal depending on which color weft thread you started with.
I hope that makes sense. It's really not difficult at all, the only trouble I ran into was counting the warp threads to remember which pairs made a pixel. I'm so excited to keep playing around with this technique- it has so much potential!
