SpinnySpinny

I’m making a model of a warp weighted loom for an upcoming talk. It’s hardly pretty, what with my carpentry skills and all, but it’s functional. This is the loom of classical antiquity and the Viking era. I recall a comment in an archaeology book how at many sites you can’t go more than a few meters without finding a loom weight. (Mine are bags of gravel.) One of the interesting things about vertical looms is that several weavers can work at one wide loom, passing bundles of weft along as they go. This can be found in fragments that have crossed wefts, jumping from shed to shed throughout the fabric.

I have a few more adjustments to make it really usable, my intention is to have it for demos and let people try it out. It’s portable (sorta) and not easily damaged. I can’t weave much because I can’t hold my arms up for more than a few minutes, but I can show people what to do with it.

Here’s a picture of mine. Much more information can be found from my friend Carolyn Priest-Dorman on her Warp-Weight Loom page.