The alternative title of this post could be "I Do Not Need a Rigid Heddle Loom, Right?"
If you are paying keen attention to this website, you may have noticed the STITCHES Expo at home button. I'm teaching three of my most popular classes online the weekend of 8-10 August 2021.
Last week there was a special Zoom meeting preview for previous attendees of STITCHES online. It was a chance to run down the class offerings. For those of us who are teachers, it was a chance to show class samples and answer any questions potential students might have. I've done this sort of thing before for other online classes. No worry.
And then Myra Wood shows up with her Crazyshot class.
I have an 8-shaft and a 16-shaft loom. I do not need a rigid heddle loom. I do not. I do not. I do not.
Shortly after the preview ended, I went over to Myra's website and bought her book.
I love Myra's sense of design, geometry, and color. Her work is jubilant, which is why I find it charismatic. And now she has found a way to combine weaving with knitting. Basically, crazy shot is a way to use pick up sticks to weave overshot patterns on a rigid heddle loom. The obverse and reverse are mirror images, but both are good — i.e. the fabric has no wrong side, merely two equally attractive right sides.
Myra is using yarns knitters understand. She uses cotton in the warp, sport weight in the tabby weft, and worsted weight in the pattern weft. She calls for yarns you can buy from Webs, Knit Picks, or your friendly local yarn store (Cascade 220). A lot of these materials are things we knitters already have in our stashes.
Many of the patterns Myra is weaving are also familiar. She is using Fair Isle and Scandinavian sources. Charlene Schurch's Mostly Mittens: Ethnic Designs from Russia would be another great source to mine. I am thinking this type of weaving would be fantastic with long print yarns like Noro or Kauni.
The tools are fairly simple. A small rigid heddle loom will set you back about $165 for a 10-inch wide weaving width. A 16-inch runs about $200-$250. A 24-inch or 32-inch width will get you into the $300 to $450 range. Weaving suffers from the economic barrier to entry. But there is a lot you could do with basic yarns, a rigid heddle loom, and a pick up stick. And the rigid heddle has the advantage of having less loom waste. Also, some rigid heddle looms can accommodate two heddles, which leads to double weave. It is definitely a gateway "drug." Combine it with Myra's wonderful book, and you won't care if everything you want to attend is canceled due to the pandemic.
Fortunately, I have lots of shows over the next two months. I do not have time to add a rigid heddle loom to my stable of fiber arts tools. Yet.
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