Last night I brought home my latest toy – from The Black Lamb in Port Hope Ontario, an Ashford Knitters Loom (the 20″ one). I didn’t get home until late at night, but Tito and I set it up together and got a few inches of weaving in before going to sleep.

The loom is super easy to put together. I’ve never done any weaving at all, but the instructions were clear and easy. Getting your warp on (the vertical strands) is also pretty easy, and not as time-consuming as I’d feared.

Ollie, the Junior Foreman, supervising the warp.

We were weaving about 45 minutes from taking it out of the bag. I think it’s something that gets faster with experience too. My biggest challenge right now is just getting some experience under my belt and trying to get an ‘even stitch’ (my knitting brain) and get nice even sides (right now they look like someone’s been chewing on them).

Junior Foreman, supervising the first few inches of weaving.

Once you understand how it works, a loom is like a canal lock – a beautiful mechanism, elegant in its simplicity, that solves a fairly complex problem. I can’t wait to get a little more time on it, and to get comfortable and competent enough to start getting creative with it!

The first few inches