Below is taken from my book, Warping Your Loom & Tying On New Warps which is currently out of print. It will be available very soon only by PDF and “on demand”. This is one of my favorite techniques for threading without mistakes.
Threading from the “claw”
This technique speeds up your threading.
Behind the heddles you use your left hand,
held palm downward like a claw, to hold four
threads in order. To thread, separate out four
heddles in order according to your list on the
adding machine tape. With your “claw” hand,
reach below the lease and place one thread
between your little finger and ring finger, one
between your ring finger and middle finger,
and so on, ending with one thread between
index finger and thumb. Push the threading
hook through the first heddle eye and, with the
hook curved down, catch the thread between
thumb and forefinger, then draw it through.
Continue with the three remaining threads:
first putting the hook through the next heddle
eye in sequence, then catching the next thread
in sequence and pulling it through. Figure 84
shows you a close-up of this method.
Thanks for the tip. A veteran weaver friend showed me the claw. And how she “crochets” the heddles by collecting all four threads on the hook before pulling them all the way through.
There’s a couple of videos on YT by another famous weaver showing how to do this. This method is DABOMB! It has saved my sanity. Thank you for sharing it, Peggy!
In my city is a Douglas Andrew floor loom for sale. Is this good for a beginner, or should I look at something else. Are there instruction books for this type of loom?
I don’t know of those looms but there is an organization that keeps manuals and records about looms. Google historic looms or such things to find them. Let me know if you can’t find them and I can search. My guide line for a used loom is that it should be free or very cheap. Then if you don’t like it you can always sell it again and get what you need. Probably my book , Weaving for Beginners would be all you’d need as a beginner instead of a manual unless this is a very unusually constructed loom. Find the website!!
Peggy
I am a very new Weaver I have a ver hard time with the math for warping I believe it’s called and getting my yarn on starght is a big issue also so any help is appreciated
You need my book, Weaving for Beginners to answer these and more questions. Available on my website!
Peggy