Category: Weave Page 6 of 34

Zoom Loom

I am so very excited!

My friend, John, has collaborated with Schacht Spindle Co, to produce the Zoom Loom. Zoom Loom is the next generation of pin looms. You may be familiar with the old Weave-Its, Weavettes, and the like. And some of you may have even come across my blog because you were searching for my instructions on how to make a pin loom. (That is the all time most popular page on my blog. I get hits from search engines on this on a daily basis.)

I say next generation because John has made several modifications to the loom to make it much easier to use than the previous iterations. The frame is larger so there is actually something to hold on to, without cramping your thumb. The inside edge is beveled so that the needle glides up the edge instead of stubbing into the flat inside edge (or your hand when you miss). There’s a notch to hold the yarn so you don’t have to make a slip knot (nor maneuver the slip knot off the pin at the end).

And what can you do with these little pin looms? You can make blankets, shawls, scarves, hats, and even swim trunks! They don’t even need to retain their square shape. The flower on the right is made with a pin loom woven square. The flower was made with unspun silk hankie pulled into “yarn.” John decided my SOAR name tag was boring and attached this flower to my silk cord.

I have been following along with John’s progress over the past 3 years (more details on his blog). I have seen his prototype along the way, heard of his frustrations and his search for perfection. I am so happy that it is finally a reality. I look forward to seeing the production version in person next week.

The Zoom Loom will be available at your favorite Schacht distributor in April 2013.

The warp I used for the vest fabric is Cotton Ice. Cotton Ice is a cabled yarn, which means that it is plied twice.

In this particular case, the yarn was initially spun in the S direction, one each of cotton and rayon. Then the 2 singles were plied together in the Z direction. Last step, which makes this a cabled yarn, multiple strands (3 in this case) of the plied yarn were then plied again in the opposite direction, S. As with all spun yarn, the starting spin direction can be either S or Z.

What’s important to my little story here is that the last direction this particular yarn was twisted in was S. (My typical 2 ply yarn ends with a Z twist.)

Now let me show you a couple of pictures of my selvedges…

The photo on the left is my left selvedge thread along with a warp thread a bit further in the web. The photo on the right shows my right selvedge thread along with a warp thread in the web.

I don’t know if you can see it but the left selvedge thread has become untwisted during the weaving process. Looking to the right, the right selvedge thread has become more twisted.

I once had a chenille baby blanket “fall apart” on the left selvedge. The yarn was untwisting and the fluff was falling out. All I was left was the bare threads that was to hold the fibers in. In looking at this, the chenille must have ended with an S twist.

My theory is that in throwing my shuttle from left to right, I am, ever so slightly, putting in a Z twist to the yarn, thereby, removing twist from the yarn. On the right side of the warp, I am doing the opposite — putting an S twist to the yarn, thereby adding twist to the yarn.

This is going to require a few more warps and paying close attention to what is happening to my selvedges with plain old 2 ply yarn. But it also creates some avenues of thought and experiments.

Stay tuned.