Portland Handweavers Guide, Small Loom Study Group, Minutes May 2025
The meeting was lightly attended. We decided not to meet over the summer but that the last Saturday of the month at 1pm is still a good time and day.
We talked a little about maybe next year trying to have an organized presentation every other month, then alternate with a meeting where we all bring our projects and work together in the room. Please think about whether that works for you.
Whoever feels comfortable, please bring woven pieces to the Strawberry social end of year PHG meeting to show as part of the report out to the larger guild. I am going to bring the two clasped weft pieces I have previously shown at the meetings because they show a progression.
We talked about the Cavandoli knot which is an alternative to hemstitching. It looks a little smoother than regular hemstitching. Here is a good video:
A show and tell was brought in that was an experiment. Instead of using the large yarn for hemstitching, it used 8/4 cotton and then transitioned to two shuttles of bulky yarn for the weaving. It looked good to me but see for yourself in the picture. Another learning from the piece is that when using two shuttles it is easier if the outside threads of the rigid heddle are either both through the slot or both through the heddle. When they alternate then managing the shuttles varies between left and right side of the loom.
I purchased a Clover loom like demonstrated at the last meeting. To emphasize what we learned at the last meeting, here are my observations:
Most important, it takes substantially less strength to weave because you never have to raise or lower the rigid heddle. The bar that controls the shed just twists in place or slides forward and backward.
The shed is smaller than a rigid heddle but still adequate.
I cannot get as much tension as a rigid heddle because when tension gets beyond a certain point the bar will have to be held in place to keep the shed open. With less tension, the bar maintains the shed while sitting.
In my first attempt to setup the loom I used a bar that was too small for the yarn. I had tried one piece of yarn and it seemed to move freely. When I added all the rest the tension increased to the point I could not twist the bar. However, because of the unique bar design, I could swap in a bigger bar without changing the yarn. I could not do that on a rigid heddle loom. The only downside (besides the work involved) is my piece is not 50% wider than I thought it would be. Oh well.
Another really nice feature of this loom is that it is physically smaller than the equivalent rigid heddle loom. It is very quick and easy to store and move.
