Been seeing little heart looms for quite some time. But I’m a cheapskate and wouldn’t buy one. Took me a while to develop the confidence to attempt to build, and then weave on, one of my own.
Everybody loves colorful little hearts, right?
After the experience, I’ve concluded that professionals are called that for a reason. Though I may never purchase one, I’m recommending Hazel Rose’s sweetheart looms if you want to weave reliable-looking hearts on a reliable loom. Mine’s cute, but if you examine the heart, you can see how the stitches in the lobe parts of the heart are gasping for air, while the stitches in the lower chamber are more spread out. I’m not sure how to go about fixing the problem.
Loom and heart.
The heart I made is quite small, I think, compared to Hazel Rose’s heart. She sells hers in two sizes though, so maybe mine is comparable to the smaller one. Jenni Smith, from the Facebook Pin Loom Weaving Support Group, was kind enough to give me permission to use her photo.
I think this must be the larger Hazel Rose sweetheart because it’s about 4 inches across. (Shown on a 4″ x 4″ woven square.)
I think mine might be comparable to Hazel Rose’s 2″ sweetheart loom. (Shown on a 4″ x 4″ square.)
While I was about it, I also experimented with making a heart loom out of cardboard and anti-static packing foam. (Links to former posts on pin loom making, and materials needed, are listed at the end of this post.)
Cardboard works fine as a substitute for foam core.
I continued my experiments by making some other shapes and using yet another substrate: a flip flop!
These were cheap, so I bought the largest pair I could find–solely (no pun intended) (OK, maybe a little intended) for cutting-up purposes.
The flip flop adhered just as well as anything else to the foam core and made a delightful little leaf loom.
It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty cute, I think.
And I’d been wanting to attempt a circle, so I tried that too.
You can tell I had only one skein of yarn on the worktable last night.
I can’t explain precisely how to use these looms, and they don’t yield predictable results yet (except for the heart, if you follow Hazel Rose’s instructions), but they’re fun to play around with. I’m definitely keeping Adventures in Loom Making in my arsenal of weaving-related activities.
Related posts on pin loom construction:
I enjoyed seeing what shapes you came up with. They all look great!
Thanks, Deborah! And if I haven’t said so before, your alphabet baby blanket is darling.