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Lessons from a Rigid Heddle Loom - Part 1

 I hadn't realized it had been almost a month since my last post. Apologies, for anyone searching for more.

This post should probably be titled "Fiber Arts Requires Patience".

This week, I'm working on a project that has been on my to-do list for awhile. I was gifted with an old rigid heddle loom that had spent some time (i.e. many years) in an old barn, after the previous owner stopped using it.


I also had some worsted weight acrylic yarn left over from a sweater project, and I liked the colors, so I thought I'd use it to try out the loom. The problem was that my cats had decided they preferred the yarn to the litter box. *sigh*

No a problem. I have six cats, and I love them all. This is life with cats and yarn. I used my yarn swift and bundled the yarn up into large hanks.

I threw the yarn in the bathtub with the hottest water I could get and added a few squirts of shampoo and some vinegar. I left it to soak for about 30 minutes, then rinsed it and squeezed it out. The pee was gone, the yarn smelled fresh and clean. Now I just had to dry it.

I didn't want to wait for it to dry, so I thought the dryer, on a low setting, would be great. It was acrylic yarn that was washable anyway. Well, here's what came out of the dryer.


Lesson learned: Fiber arts requires patience. Before I could warp the loom, I had to detangle hundreds of yards of yarn. Luckily, my youngest daughter enjoys doing it, so we sat down with our bundles and got started.

We got half of it done, so far, and it was enough to start on the loom. I had originally thought the fabric would be good for placemats, but it pulled in a little, so I'm just going to weave straight on through and call it a scarf. Not bad for my first plain weave project.


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