For Your Review: Bobbin Winder

Winding bobbins by hand is kind of like winding yarn into balls for knitting - it’s possible to do it without one, but it’s a lot faster when you have the right tools. There’s a great video from The Woolery about how to wind a bobbin.

You SHOULD practice this, though. The person in the video makes this look really easy, but it’s harder than it looks, at least for me! So far, no weaving mishaps have happened because my bobbin wasn’t perfect, but I still wish I were better at it.

I wind as many bobbins worth of yarn as I think I will need before I start weaving, but it’s no big deal to jump up and wind some more if I run out. It creates a small break in the weaving - I probably should stop and stretch my legs every once in awhile, anyway!

If you're a spinner who doesn't weave, you might still want to consider buying a bobbin winder. They're great for winding storage or plying bobbins!

For Your Review: Mini Boat Shuttle

The 9-inch mini boat shuttle was my first shuttle purchase. The wood is so smooth! It really just feels so nice in my hand, I can’t believe it. I bought 10 bobbins for it. The little plastic bobbins for shuttles are really inexpensive, so there’s no excuse for not having a bunch of them.

Bobbins come in different lengths - make sure the ones you buy fit your shuttle!

With stick shuttles, I sometimes snag the warp yarn as I weave. This basically never happens with a boat shuttle. Plus, if I work carefully, I can use more of the warp with a boat shuttle than with a stick shuttle. I can tuck the nose of the shuttle into small and strange sheds. For thinner yarns, like sock yarns, it works great! It takes a little practice to get the hang of it, and I always end up winding more bobbins than I think I needed, but I really like it.

I should back up - boat shuttles hold bobbins, which are just little plastic spools that hold yarn. You can wind bobbins by hand or you can use a bobbin winder. Winding by hand takes no more time than winding a stick shuttle, so until you’re ready to get a winder, you can just work with your fingers.

For Your Review: Stick Shuttles

When you buy a loom, it usually comes with a stick shuttle or two. These are basically what they sound like - stick-like things you use to shuttle weft yarn from one side of the loom to the other. Serious weavers will sometimes discount these cool little tools and prefer to use “boat” shuttles. I love boat shuttles, but sometimes only a stick shuttle will do.

Thicker yarns (as in, worsted weight and thicker) and art yarns, for example, sometimes work better for me on a stick shuttle. I started liking stick shuttles a lot more after I learned how to wind yarn onto them in a figure 8 pattern. It makes the shuttle much more flat and easy to use. You can also get a lot more yarn on your shuttle, so you don’t have to stop and wind yarn as often. As always, just have fun! The tools are just there to help you.

For Your Review: Why Use A Stand for Your Loom?

Not every weaver works on a stand. Many prefer tables. If a loom is small enough, it can even rest in your lap. I talked with one weaving teacher who said she uses a TV tray to hold hers.

I decided to go ahead and get a stand. The tiny loom I borrowed from my friend did fit in my lap, and that was nice, but the cats sometimes knocked it off. It was uncomfortable to have to hold my legs still while weaving. Also, sometimes it’s hard to pack in the yarn onto a loom that’s in your lap. (You don’t always have to do this, but when you need to, it’s nice to have a little leverage.)

I am so happy that I got the stand. Schacht stands are really stable and I’ve never heard of one breaking down. It was really easy to put together, too. But, be careful - they include hardware for a bunch of different looms with the stand. It might be helpful to measure each of the bolts before you begin, so you don’t do what I did and use the short bolts where you should have had long ones!

For Your Review: Weaving for Fun and Stashbusting!

I got bit by the weaving bug, hard, just a few weeks ago. A friend of mine loaned me a little rigid heddle loom to try and I was hooked when I finished my first project - two hours later.

Let that sink in. My FIRST project, which was a not-tiny scarf, only took me two hours to weave. Start to finish.

Weaving is a great way to explore color combinations, use up bits of stash yarns, and finally have something to do with that handspun yarn you loved to spin but never “told” you what you should knit with it. It’s fun to weave it, instead!

So, I started researching looms.

I picked a 25-inch Schacht Flip. It’s big enough that I can weave an afghan in just two panels (or a really big one in three), I can add a second heddle later to do double-weave, and it still folds up so that it’s not super-huge and totally taking over the living room all of the time. All from a company I already really love because of my Ladybug wheel. Perfection!

If you’re choosing a loom and can’t decide what you need, this video from Paradise Fibers might help you. It really covers a lot of the factors you should think about.

So, there are a bunch of new words to learn and almost as much new stuff to get! But, it uses up stash yarn!