There are two questions I hear most often. 1.How long did it take?2.What is it going to be? These are hard questions to answer. I admit that I stumble around to find satisfying answers. 1. How long? Hours and hours. 2. Cloth. It is going to be cloth. What will the cloth be used for? I don’t know. But when I need a little something with a pretty design, I’ll know where to find it. There are two finished pieces, though, from this first drawloomwarp: the Heart-Shaped Baskets table runner (adapted from a pattern in Damask and Opphämta, by Lillemor Johansson), and a small opphämta table topper that I designed on the loom. The rest are samplers, experiments, tests, and just plain fun making-of-cloth. Oh, and I wondered if I could take the thrums and make a square braid…just for the fun of it.
Opphämta piece on the left, with Fårö wool pattern weft. Heart-Shaped Baskets runner on the right, with red 16/2 cotton pattern weft. Ten pattern shafts.
I will let the pictures tell the story of this first drawloom warp.
May you have plenty of things to make just for fun.
Pulling the draw handles for each four-thread unit of weaving is like doing counted cross stitch on the loom. I enjoyed cross stitch in the 1980’s and I am enjoying this drawloom version now. Very much. I started this Heart-Shaped Baskets table runner on Valentine’s Day—a fun way to celebrate the day!
Heart-Shaped Baskets. Adapted from a pattern in Damask and Opphämta, by Lillemor Johansson.Red 16/2 cotton weft on unbleached 16/2 cotton warp. The dark weft on a light warp makes consistency in beating that much more important.
Like weaving on any floor loom, I want to have consistency in my beat and in my selvedges. Inconsistencies in these basics can detract from the drawloom imagery of the final cloth. The main thing is to keep paying attention. And keep joyfully pulling those draw handles to create more hearts of love.
Grace is a gift of favor, not an earned reward. Forgiveness is the giving of grace. And gratitude results from receiving grace. Grace makes us graceful. Giving and receiving grace with consistency is what we’d like to see in ourselves. That’s when the love of God, in whose image we’ve been made, is most clearly seen in us. So we practice what we know to do. And pay attention. And keep joyfully weaving a heart of love, by God’s grace.
You will be happy to hear that my drawloom is all dressed and set up. And it works! Every glide of the shuttle reveals exceptional magic in the cloth. Even better than I had hoped.
Pattern heddles are long, with a normal 1/2-inch eye. Breast beam is used for sorting pattern heddles into units and then adding a 2-lb weight (lingo) to each unit. In this case, four heddles make one unit.Inkleband from my “band stash” helps me separate pattern units that will be placed onto a pattern shaft.
I had a few nervous moments while dressing this expansive loom, struggling with the pattern shafts. I learned the hard way that attempting a shortcut can mean taking much longer to complete the task. But, in the end, everything straightened out. Whew!
Oops. I successfully distributed pattern units onto one pattern shaft, moving it onto the pattern shaft holders. So, I thought, Why not do two shafts at a time? Uh oh. Not a wise move for a beginner like me.Ten pattern shafts, plus one extra shaft for selvedge threads. After fixing my little mishap, I took my time to finish transferring pattern units to the pattern shafts.Drawloom’s first project is mostly practice and samplers. This pattern is taken from Learn Damask in a Day, by Tina Ignell in VävMagasinet, January, 2011, pgs. 40-41.Eight-pointed star is seen often in traditional patterns. This eight-pointed star with diamonds is found in Drawloom Weaving, by Joanne Hall, p. 12. I created the border design at the loom.Light catches the warp threads in the 4-shaft broken twill as the cloth goes around the breast beam.
May your struggles turn into triumphs.
Your friend, Karen
~What are your questions? Joanne has answers~
Janet, who is interested in drawloom weaving, asks these questions. Joanne Hall provides the answers.
Q: I am trying to determine where to put a drawloom. How much floor space does a drawloom take? And how much additional area will I need around the loom?
A: These are good questions. Many weavers think about these things when they become interested in getting a drawloom.
Glimåkra 120cm Standard, with Myrehed drawloom. Photo from Drawloom Weaving, by Joanne Hall.
Width – For either the 100cm, 39.5-inch Ideal or the 100cm Standard, the width of the loom is 4 1/2 feet. Part of this is the ratchet wheel that sticks out 5 inches from the loom frame. The 120cm, 47-inch loom would be 8 inches wider.
Length with the loom extension – Without considering space for the bench, the depth is 7 1/2 feet. The Ideal loom will have the same depth as the Standard loom. The Standard loom can be set out another 1 1/2 feet further, which may be nice if one wants to have 50 pattern shafts.
One occasionally needs to stand on the left side of the loom during warping. You need to stand at the back of the loom and walk along the right side the loom to move the ratchet wheels. When beaming the warp, it is good to have two or three feet of space either at the front or the back of the loom. During warping, you will need space at one side of the loom to move the pattern shafts and warping sticks in and out of the loom.
So, you need about 6 – 7 feet by 12 feet, but some get by with a few inches less.
Q: Can any Ideal or Standard loom be converted to a drawloom? What are the “must haves” to look for in a used loom that will be set up as a drawloom?
Joanne Hall at the 100cm Ideal loom with single unit drawloom. (The drawloom extension is no longer made for the Ideal loom.) Photo from Drawloom Weaving, by Joanne Hall.
A: I frequently hear from weavers who send me photos of a loom and drawloom that they have found online. They want to know if $3800 is a good price for it. Often it is 40 years old and is being sold by the grandson, who cannot answer your questions.
If you are hoping to save a little by finding a used loom, it is best to purchase a used Glimakra Standard loom of any width and any age and then purchase the drawloom new. That way, you can get help when you need it. Plus, the Myrehed drawlooms have advantages over the older-style drawlooms.
I love my Myrehed drawlooms and once you try it, you will find that it is not so mysterious, but instead, a lot of fun to weave on.
