NEW BOX TAPE LOOM

My husband, Fred, made me this box tape loom. It has double holes for pick up pattern weaving. Now to warp it!!!

BAND WEAVING

Here are some photos (front and back) of the band I have been weaving on the little tape loom. The red pattern yarns are in the upper holes of my little loom. The patterns were inspired by the Ingrid Hansen article. Since my loom has only half or a third of the holes and slots compared to the ones in her article, my band is narrow and my patterns less complex.

NEW BAND WITH A DIFFERENT PATTERN

The weaving is getting easier, but it still takes time to do the pick up patterns.
After having to untie myself from the band and loom which were tied to a chair to answer the phone a couple of times I made a quick release clamp from my first pick up patterned band. It is just two pieces of wood with holes in one end that I ran the band through and knotted. I made a loop at the other end of the woven band to fit over the end of the wooden pieces to hold them. It is perfect to clamp the woven band as it gets longer without distorting it.

ROVING TO YARN

This pin-drafted roving was processed by Loch’s and to me looks like a winter sunrise.

The roving came from the spring shearing of our Finnsheep that I washed and dyed before sending it to Jamie.

I couldn’t resist diving into it turning it into yarn.

DOUBLE HOLE TAPE LOOM

Tape looms were used to create trims, ties and fastening options in the days before Velcro, elastic and zippers.

Tape looms were often used to produce a warp faced band. In this country they were sometimes incorporated into a box, equipped with a crank to wind the warp.

I had seen photos of very old tape looms in the collection of the Norsk Folkemuseum click on søk i samlingene and then enter the search term Båndgrind

There is also an article on double hole rigid heddle loom weaving - - but unfortunately no indication of how exactly it was done.

So Fred put more holes in my tape loom……… and made this very pretty tulipwood shuttle for me after designs we found on the Norsk Folkemuseum site.