Getting Creative with my Floor Loom
In celebration of National Spinning and Weaving week, we’re highlighting four different WEBS staff members and their spinning or weaving tool of choice. Here, Amy tells us how weaving on her floor loom has lead to endless creative possibilities!
I have been knitting for about 12 years and I love it. It’s portable, versatile, and provides endless opportunities for creative expression. It’s what led me to Webs and now working at Webs has led me to weaving. Last winter, I was straightening the weaving 
display and came across some dishtowels woven with cotton. I fell in love. I noticed that whenever customers would show any interest in weaving, I would take them right to the dishtowels. My small obsession with these dishtowels happened to coincide with the start of Leslie Ann’s seven-week beginning weaving class. As much as I loved those towels, I was hesitant to sign up. I was a little intimidated by weaving, but I was curious, particularly about weaving on floor looms. There was something about all the threads lined up, the clacking of the shafts going up and down, and the finished woven fabric (dishtowels) wound neatly onto the cloth beam. So, I took the class.
Luckily, our first project was dishtowels. Thank goodness. I ended up with three lovely dishtowels and the ability to make more! We also learned how to weave twills. Which I promptly made into zippered bags lined with fabric and gave to friends as gifts. After that, I was in.
Now that I know enough about weaving to be dangerous, I have started to experiment with different ways to use the yarn that I have left over from other projects. (Ahh, the glory of stash busting) I have also started over-dyeing finished objects and adding fabric/felt details. I already have a long list of projects planned including rugs woven with our old jeans, and some fabric that I just happen to have lying around. Of course, every time I go into the warehouse I come up with a new yarn to try and a new project. The possibilities are endless.
I am a new weaver. I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of what you can do with raw materials and a floor loom. That’s the exciting part. At the end of the day, weaving on my floor loom gives me another way of exploring what I can create with yarn, fabric and color. Oh, and dishtowels, lots and lots of hand woven dishtowels!
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Tags: floor loom, weaving
