Little Looms

Easy Weaving with Little Looms is a perennial favorite. By popular demand, it will now be available by subscription. Each issue will have the mix of 18–22 projects, techniques, and features you love, expanding the focus on fundamental weaving skills, creative inspiration, and innovative applications. Each issue is designed to have something for beginning and more experienced weavers. In addition to the core subjects of rigid-heddle and pin-loom weaving, Little Looms regularly includes projects and articles about tapestry, tablet weaving, and inkle weaving.

Little Looms • Spring 2023 Issue 5

EDITORIAL

FANCY FINDINGS • Protect your scissors, soothe your hands, and play with small tapestry looms or a dye kit for novices.

THE WEAVING EXPLORER • INGENIOUS TECHNIQUES, ACCESSIBLE TOOLS & CREATIVE PROJECTS WITH YARN, PAPER, WIRE & MORE

IDENTIFYING THE FIBER CONTENT OF MYSTERY YARNS • Almost every weaver eventually ends up in this scenario: you have a particular skein, tube, or cone of yarn, and you’d like to use it in a project … but you don’t know what the fiber content is. Maybe it was a freebie you picked up—or it was a gift—or you bought it so long ago you can’t remember, and the label has long ago fallen off and been lost forever. How do you know how the yarn will perform, how much it will shrink, how durable it will be, or how it will combine with other yarns?

TAPESTRY TALK: FINISHING AND PRESENTING YOUR WORK • When you create small textile works, you might wonder how best to finish and present them—especially if you’ve created something for viewing rather than a functional scarf or placemat. Both intentions are worthwhile, but the finishing and presentation methods selected for each use require different considerations.

TERRIFIC TOOLS • Get more from your weaving with tools designed to make your life easier and broaden your weaving options.

MENDING THE VISIBLE (AND INVISIBLE) • For as long as I can remember, creating has been essential to my identity. As a child, I was constantly making something new out of whatever was in front of me. As a teen and young adult, I rediscovered my love of fiber arts, but it has been my time as a mother that has spurred the most creative and healing experiences in my life.

WEAVING WITH TWO HEDDLES • It feels like new doors open every time I sit down to weave. The possibilities for exploration seem endless. Weaving with two heddles, for example, opened yet another exciting door for me—and I hope it does the same for you. Weaving with two heddles allows you to weave with finer yarns, because the sett can be doubled in the warp. It also allows you to weave textured fabrics. If you add pick-up sticks or a heddle rod, even more options are available to you, including twills and even doubleweave.

AERIAL SCARF • A pin-loom swatch was all it took for Yvonne to fall in love with the airy qualities of the aptly named Berroco Aerial yarn. Wearing this light and breezy scarf is like wrapping yourself in a cloud, but you’ll find it is a sturdy accessory, one your friends will want to borrow.

VARAFELDUR WALL HANGING • Making a full-size Icelandic varafeldur, a Viking-age cloak, is a daunting task, so why not start with an adaptation for the rigid-heddle loom and weave a smaller wall hanging? Whether you choose to buy prewashed and separated locks of Icelandic fleece, or wash and process the wool yourself, this project will take you back in time as you weave curly wool locks using the Icelandic knot technique.

COUNTING SHEEP PILLOW • Celebrate lambing season with this sheepy pillow created with two sizes of pin looms, a textured weave, and simple construction. Deborah based her design on Valais Blacknose sheep with their white fleeces and black heads and legs.

OTTER MITTENS AND FINGERLESS GLOVES • Weave a pair of pin-loom...