I have taken up weaving again – not having done much since college. Of course my stable of looms has grown from a Spears child’s toy I found in a charity shop to my latest ‘find’ of a 4 shaft Countermarche in need of TLC.

The Spears took me through early lockdown when I worked on a project reflecting on the lockdown. I chose to spin the yarns I would use from my hair, my dog’s hair and that of my white cat. This was quite weird to do and the cat and dog hair needed a bit of wool to make them spinnable. My hair was like wire once spun and plied.

If I can find a photo of the finished piece I will do so, I took some I know because the fabrics would not be returned after exhibition.

Next I bought a slightly larger Spears – I’m not sure why , I think I was scared to commit to anything larger! Fortunately my friend realised I should ‘go larger’ and gave me her old Dryad rigid heddle loom. I loved it! At this point I had a go at tablet weaving on the Dryad, and this led me on to an Inkle loom, which is another story…..

Two warps later on the Dryad and I was hooked and looking for a wider warp, so my lovely husband bought me an Ashford Knitter’s loom (rigid heddle 20inch width). I broke it in with tea towels – isn’t that what everyone does and moved on to a Rya weave cushion, then added a second heddle and my son built a stand so now it’s more versatile and nice and easy to use.

Next came a Louet W70 – wider still and with 4 shafts and a stand. I get back ache leaning into the loom so decided I wanted treadles, and my son and I converted the loom to 4 treadles. It’s great!

Meanwhile someone approached me to restore a 4 shaft Dryad ‘Wendy’ table loom. It surprised me how much I enjoyed doing this. I am very practical and love a challenge. Cleaning and mending the metal heddles, cleaning the reed and repairing the wooden frame and rebuilding one of the harnesses and various cords, I beamed a warp but sadly, due to personal issues the owner could not come to the planned lessons on how to thread it up or make a fresh warp before I moved away. I hope it has progressed.

So back to my looms. At the moment all of these are packed away whilst we moved house and have building work done. So what did I do? Bought another loom! This is a restoration project of my own and I will take time to enjoy the process and learn about how to tie up the lamms slowly and thoughtfully.

I will keep updating as it progresses.