Since I took Thora Sharptooth's wadmal class at Pennsic (see that entry here), Grainne and I have been saying we ought to get together to work on her warp-weighted loom.

She had one, but it had been little more than a coat rack since its creation, and I was a great catalyst to get it going.  (I do this frequently – I show up and people get courage.  It's a wonderful thing.)

So this was yesterday afternoon.

In a bit less than three hours (and with much gabbing and giggling), we got a Pretty Durn Wide(tm) warp spaced out on her loom, chained into front and back warp.  She's just doing a tabby weave for starters, to figure out some of the basic loom mechanics.

Here's one of the surprises: Hire a Greet (or some other similarly tall, skinny, and flexible string maven) to feed you threads as you chain them from below.  Goes MUCH faster.

(the Greet in the machine….)

When I work on my own loom (when I get it), I'm going to have to train helpers to do the chaining, as I suspect my natural attributes mean I'll be the one inside the warp.

Grainne told me about the Yahoo! group about warp-weighted looms, and I'm very excited to find so many people who have struggled and overcome some challenges I saw ahead.  For example, I can now see several examples of how to have non-wall supported looms.  There's even great photo coverage of how to take a project in progress off the loom, roll it up in a special bag, and move all to another location.  Critical for my life of demos and events.  After the tent is done…loom is NEXT.