I have just started working on a large tri-loom for the first time. At first I was not sure if I liked it compared to the smaller ones. After the first couple of rows I started to have fun again and I love it. For me it is a much different experience.
Some of the differences are, for the first couple of rows I found that I had to have some significant tension to keep my yarn from low sagging. I am a little nervous about this since on the small looms I tried not to overdo the tension. I am using a cotton yarn and it gets stuck more easily than it did on the small 18 inch loom. It is still doable but just something to be aware of. One thing I do like is it is a lot easier to use your fingers to weave the yarn. On an 18 inch loom I found using my fingers hard and clumsy.. but this is not the case on a large loom. It is actually fun to weave the yarn with your fingers. I sometimes use a crochet hook but sometimes use my fingers. The loom I am using is 7 feet across. And It is much larger than I expected. I kind of like walking from one end to another. The 7 feet size uses 550 yards of yarn.. wowser, much more than I expected.
So far, so good. I will post my experiences on this.. the good and the bad. One thing I recommend is to pick a yarn you love. I think it makes all the difference in your learning experience. Try not to pick it too fuzzy. The manufacturer of my loom recommends wool. She is probably correct but I love this cotton yarn so much I had to try it. It seems to me the Cascade 128 yarn might be a great choice..
on sale at webs for 4.99 for 128 yards.. you would need 5 balls for a 7 foot shall(25$) not a bad deal.
http://www.yarn.com
More on this in later posts!
Some of the differences are, for the first couple of rows I found that I had to have some significant tension to keep my yarn from low sagging. I am a little nervous about this since on the small looms I tried not to overdo the tension. I am using a cotton yarn and it gets stuck more easily than it did on the small 18 inch loom. It is still doable but just something to be aware of. One thing I do like is it is a lot easier to use your fingers to weave the yarn. On an 18 inch loom I found using my fingers hard and clumsy.. but this is not the case on a large loom. It is actually fun to weave the yarn with your fingers. I sometimes use a crochet hook but sometimes use my fingers. The loom I am using is 7 feet across. And It is much larger than I expected. I kind of like walking from one end to another. The 7 feet size uses 550 yards of yarn.. wowser, much more than I expected.
So far, so good. I will post my experiences on this.. the good and the bad. One thing I recommend is to pick a yarn you love. I think it makes all the difference in your learning experience. Try not to pick it too fuzzy. The manufacturer of my loom recommends wool. She is probably correct but I love this cotton yarn so much I had to try it. It seems to me the Cascade 128 yarn might be a great choice..
on sale at webs for 4.99 for 128 yards.. you would need 5 balls for a 7 foot shall(25$) not a bad deal.
http://www.yarn.com
More on this in later posts!
Rita, perhaps this will help before you get to far, you want the first few inches of passes on a big loom to be drapy and saggy and loose. On a seven foot loom at least an inch down in the middle for the first few inches of weaving, slowly looseing as you go further along. You'll find the tension of weaving takes up that sag as you go, and if you haven't left enough sag your upper stands will be tighter than harp strings before you finish the weaving and you actually will have a very hard time getting those last couple of inches in place. I learned that one the hard way and thought I'd share.
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