I spent 3.5 hours video-recording something that–after an exorbitant number of hours editing–ended up being 14.5 minutes long.
But it’s pretty thrilling. You will catch your breath more than once. Maybe.
Here it is <drum roll>
How to Make (Not Build) Your Own 4″ x 4″ Pin Loom
I’m including the template image here in case anyone wants a closer look at it. Remember to poke through the circles but not the diamonds.
Someone asked me to make a video on using beads in a heart shape for the pin loom. As much “fun” as it is to make a video, I’d rather hold off to see if it’s totally necessary. For instance, the heart pattern I made up is so similar to the Single Outline Diamond that, in a video, a lot of the information would be repetitious. Furthermore, printed instructions, a pattern, and photos would be just as, if not more, helpful–in my opinion (which bears a lot of sway with me)–than a video. And another thing–I need some outside opinions on the finished product before I make a final decision.
Let’s start with the design.
For lack of a better title, I’ll call it “Single Outline Heart”
I’m getting faster at figuring these graphs out, but it’s still considerable effort. Though I have access to a computer weaving-draft whatcamajiggy, I still prefer to draw the design out by hand, erase, redesign and redraw on another section of the piece of graph paper. The photo above is the third version of the heart I designed.
Why didn’t I make the sides (Rows 8-12) a straight line? Because you can’t. The warp strands won’t be woven in if you go U-3 in the same spot in four rows. Trying to figure out in my head (and on paper) if I could manipulate the Layer 2 strands (I think they’re called picks) yielded dissatisfying results–though I may still try it just to see how the heart looks.
18 MAY 2017 UPDATE: You can make it appear as though there is a straight line on R8-12 by plain weaving on rows 8 and 10. This will yield a thinner-looking line and the absence of any pattern stitches will not be noticeable. Leaving the bead off those rows will be more noticeable, but I still think it will look better.
MATERIALS
yarn
30 beads with holes large enough to accommodate yarn (I used 6/0 Rocaille, or seed, beads) Read More →