One of the many butterflies that has swarmed my brain for years is weaving. I’ve always wanted to learn how. For some reason unbeknownst to me, I decided it was time to figure it out. Four weeks later, I have a 24″ counterbalance table loom that fits good on my drafting table.

I made the loom using different ideas from patterns found here and here and here. The last link being the one I used the most before finding the other two. Since my woodworking skills nor weaving knowledge are sufficient to try a 4+ harness loom, I made a two harness counterbalance for a first go.

I started out thinking I had all the scrap wood to make it, but alas, it cost another 150.00 for things like metal heddle rods, knobs, pins, cotter pins, bolts and wing nuts, screws, and all the other doo-dads necessary to finish the project. I must say, I was shocked to find out what a couple of bolts cost these days. Still if you have any of the parts hanging around, maybe there’s something here that will inspire you. All – in – all tho, if she works – I would have saved 400.00 and can chalk it up to tuition costs. If nothing else, I’ve learned the names of most of the parts doing this.

The warping board is made with lap joints, bolts, wing nuts, 1/4″ x 1″ x 3″ pine, 1″ poplar dowels (plus 1″ dowels cut from an old maple curtain rod). The specs for it came from Howard Ruttan’s plans for a warping board he made for his wife. I don’t have anywhere near his skill set – but mine’s stable and doesn’t torque, lol. Major accomplishment I tell ya’.

Loom and warping board:

Heddles and Raddle: The Raddle is just a home depot yardstick cut down with finishing nails which I gorilla glued in the holes and the Heddles are (two colors, one for each harness) made from no. 3 Aunt Lydia’s crochet thread in a jig I built from bobscrafts:

Side View (you can see the aprons, apron strings, and other schtuff):

The side view shows the extra holes drilled on the side frame so the castle can move up and down. A feature I read others desired. Most of what you see here, with the exception of the ratcheting system, is made from scraps of wood I had around including maple doweling for the counterbalance portion – came from the kid’s old fabric playhouse.

Closeup of beam ratcheting system:

(octagonal pine table legs, metal pins, and a cotter pin for the hole)

For the first attempt, I tried cutting plywood – that was next to near impossible for me without the right tools, second were wooden wheels from my kids’ wood stash with holes drilled – pin placed – from bobscrafts’ suggestions. This method doesn’t work – unless you are an expert at drilling the holes around a circle as equal distances – something I couldn’t do. Lastly, Michael came up with the idea for the legs and pins after I showed him the old style ratcheting system on colonial looms. It works really good but I need to add vinyl tips because I continue to lean my wrist into the ends of the pins.

Aprons:

Made from 10oz. canvas. One yard, cut into two 18″ x 22″ pieces. These have a double fold hem, 1/2″ then 3″ then topstitched with a double row of stitching. I nailed them to the beams with upholstery tacks every couple of inches. I made 2″ long buttonholes every inch. There are dowels in the 3″ hem, notched every inch, with extra heddle strings slip-knotted onto the notched ends, with a dab of craft glue in the notch to assure they don’t move. The heddles created a nice even length string to attach the ‘outer?’ apron rod to. I used steel rods for these and just slipped them into the heddle eyes..

The beams come from a 1 1/2″ thick walnut curtain rod cut to length, to which I nailed strips of screen door lathing with copper weatherstripping nails. It seemed the addition of the lathe would aid in tensioning, ie… going for that octaganol look.

Beater and Reeds:

For the reeds, I first tried to use the craft stick idea from bobscrafts, but I couldn’t drill the holes necessary for the threaded rod to pass through without the sticks shattering. I had made a jig to stack them, used the dremel in a drill press, but alas, it wouldn’t work. So, having an old reed window shade, I took it apart to see what it was like to weave with a reed beater before spending money on steel reeds. They are tied between square dowels with no. 3 cotton string. I tried using some old waterproof powedered resin from paper mould making days, but alas, the 32 yr. old bucket of resin died on the shelf. So, after brushing away gobs of unset resin, I ran a bead of gorilla glue in it’s place on both sides of the reed, top and bottom. That seems to have worked out well. The reed spacing ended up at 10. That will work for the dish towels I want to make. In the future, still having the craft sticks, washers, and threaded rods, I’ll just use the same method rather than trying to drill.

Of course, the loom needs tools -

10 spool thread stand and old shuttle and pirn from the local antique store: (The stand is made from 6″ dowels, a cabinet door handle, scrap 1×2 for the top, more maple dowels for the sides from the old playhouse, and a 15 1/2″ old bookshelf shelf).

Weft sticks and a reed hook from a craft stick. I’ve since read that plastic lids make good reed hooks, so if this one doesn’t work out good, I’ll make one from a coffee tub lid.

The entire kit and kaboodle has been stained (where blue) and waxed. As soon as the glue dries on the thread stand, I’m looking forward to having a warped weekend!

Wish me luck!