Evening Meeting, August 10th.

Everyone worked very hard, and went away from the evening with a fully functional, fully warped-up, scaled-down, warp-weighted loom.  The basic design is loosely based on reconstructed Iron Age looms, and is open to modification.  The beauty of this sort of loom is that it can be adjusted even when the weaving is in progress, and absolute precision is not necessary.  We didn't have quite enough time to add the top and bottom ties to keep the warp in place, but these can be added later.

Making the basic frame

Warped up

Weaving!

Preparing for our evening meeting on Wednesday, August 10th.

Alison is going to demonstrate a warp weighted loom of the type used for weaving in the Iron Age.  This will be the "bushcraft" version - scaled down and made with sticks lashed together.  The loom consists of a simple frame with the warp suspended from the top cross-piece.  Bunches of warp threads are tensioned with loom weights - stones will do - and the shed is changed in the same manner as on an inkle loom.  The frame is easy to make, and warping up is dead simple.  The difficult bit (which will sort the weaving sheep from the non-weaving goats) is threading up the warp to the weaving beam.
Advice:  use a smooth warp, and use a different coloured thread to attach the back warp threads to the beam.
Some photographs of what to expect.  Note that this loom has come out "H" shaped, whereas "A" shaped might be more stable - easy to adjust.

A suitable stick for a small loom

The basic frame - refinements would include some corner stays to prevent it twisting

Warped up and almost ready to weave

detail of the "shed"