News from Weaving Looms and the Toika Loom Studio.
Along with Adrian and Grace of Weaving Yarn and Sarah of Hedgehog Equipment I have been invited to attend the Crickhowell Guild Friendship Day later this month.
I will be bringing my surplus yarn stock as well as some new and used equipment.
I will be bringing a selection of smaller Toika equipment; shuttles, stretchers and hooks etc. If you would like to order larger pieces of equipment such as reeds for collection on the day please order these on the website and select the ‘Collect from Crickhowell’ option at the checkout so you won’t be charged postage.
As well as bargain yarn I will also be bringing some new and used spinning and weaving equipment that I no longer use either myself or for workshops. If you would like information on what is available please get in touch by phone or email before the 19th of March.
There will be a selection mainly Ashford rigid heddle looms, a couple of brand new 30cm 4 shaft Louet Ericas, a very rare Louet S90 and Shacht spinning wheels. I need to de-stash so everything will be at never to be repeated prices!
I’m really looking forward to catching up with everyone.
Hello from Helen and John at Weaving Looms and the Toika Loom Studio.
You may remember that back in October 2022 we started our journey into retirement by closing “My Fine Weaving Yarn” and transferring our yarn business to our trusted friends Adrian and Grace at Weaving Yarn Limited. We continued to sell weaving equipment at Weaving Looms and also established the Toika Loom Studio where customers planning to buy a floor loom can see and weave with a variety of Toika looms.
We have now decided to step back from online retail altogether and we are delighted that Adrian and Grace will be taking over with immediate effect. They will supply the full range of Weaving Looms products including Toika shuttles, stretchers, reeds and raddles and of course Texsolv heddles, alongside their popular range of yarns.
They are also opening their own Toika Loom Studio in Llangurig, so you will be able to test drive Toika in either Mid Wales or Leicestershire!
We hope that you will join us in wishing Adrian and Grace all the best as they take the combined business forwards. We know that they are committed to bringing you great quality products and will support your weaving journey.
Texsolv have launched arrange of coloured heddles, pegs and cord.
Before I launched these new products on the website, I wanted to use them myself and was also lucky enough to have some customers who were willing to try them and give me some feedback.
The reaction has been very positive, both for use of coloured cords and pegs in the tie up as well as swapping white heddles for a coloured version.
Texsolv are producing heddles in 5 colours plus white. We have opted to stock heddles in blue and orange and the pegs and cords in all colours available at present.
Texsolv arrow pegs available in 4 colours!
I have met weavers who have dyed their heddles themselves as an aid to threading correctly. In the past I have tried marking heddles with coloured felt tip pens but never found it satisfactory partly because the colour rubs off over time but also as I now realise that looking up or down at the end of the heddle rather than through the eye didn’t help me at all.
I swapped white heddles for orange on the odd numbered shafts on my Eeva floor loom and set about threading a warp. The difference in the ease of identifying heddles correctly was even greater than I had imagined it would be.
I can’t say that I didn’t make any threading mistakes but I can categorically state that by the time I had finished threading the warp there were no threading mistakes and the warp was ready to sley through the reed. That made a massive difference as I usually only discover a threading error or errors once the warp is tied on and weaving started, no matter how many times I have checked!
Having the coloured heddles threaded on the odd shafts proved to be helpful in several different ways.
The heddles are manufactured in exactly the same way as the white ones but those clever folks at Texsolv have made the ladder stitches that create the heddle eyes a solid colour and the rest of the heddle structure is made by twisting the colour with white. The result is that the eye of the heddles stands out really clearly as the solid colour makes an excellent contrast.
I realised as I threaded this warp that one of the most common mistakes that I make is threading 2 heddles next to each other on the same shaft when the draft specifies one. It’s an easy mistake to make and even easier on the shafts further that are further away. Counting bundles be they 4, 6, 8 or more can give a false impression that the threading has been made correctly but a quick look on the top of the heddles showed these mistakes up as soon as the section was threaded; they were really easy to spot. This made it easy to correct the threading before moving onto the next section.
It was easy to identify immediately if a heddle was on an odd or an even numbered shaft. This could also be double checked as I tied off groups of bundles after threading a section. My loom is deep from front to back and the heddles at the back of the loom are always harder to see and easier to miss when threading all of the shafts. It was much quicker and easier to identify incorrectly threaded or missed heddles. I plan to change the white pegs for orange on Eeva’s odd shafts. I think it will make identifying odd shafts from even easier.
A friend who ties up her countermarch loom in the traditional way believes that changing either the long or short cords to a colour instead of white will also make tying up much easier and less prone to errors. I will change white pegs for coloured on my countermarch that is tied up the top of the lamms way. I have already seen how much easier this makes in changing and checking a TOTL tie up.
I appreciate that this won’t appeal to, or necessarily help, every weaver as we all have our ways of doing things and short cuts that suit our looms and our bodies. I am someone who regularly makes threading mistakes so for me changing half my white heddles to orange has been really helpful. My looms will have their odd heddles changed to orange too as soon as their current warps are finished as will our selection of Toika demo looms.
These coloured Texsolv products cost more to produce so will cost than white ones but until January 31st 2024 we are making them available at the same price as their white counterparts as a special introductory offer.
Our website will be available to take orders throughout the Christmas and New Year period. Our office and phone line opening hours are shown in the table below, and we have also indicated when we will post out orders that accumulate while we are closed.
Last posting dates
A reminder too that the last posting dates for Christmas are:
I will be attending the AGWSD Summer School Trade Fair with a selection of Toika weaving equipment (not looms).
I will be sharing space with Adrian and Grace from Weaving Yarns Ltd who will be bringing lots of yummy weaving yarn to tempt you. The Trade Fair is open for Summer School delegates only on Friday evening 18th August and is open to all on Saturday 19th August from 9am-4pm. Summer School is taking place at:
Harper Adams University Near Newport Shropshire TF10 8NB.
I will only have space to be able to bring a small selection of reeds. If you would like to be sure of purchasing a reed please order it from the website and select ‘Collect from Summer School’ as your delivery option at the checkout so you are not charged postage.
Earlier this year we decided to wind down our “My Fine Weaving Yarn” business and focus on supplying high quality but affordable weaving looms and accessories. Today Weaving Looms has launched with a wide range of looms, reeds, warping, tie up, shuttles, stretchers and other essential weaving equipment.
We would like to hear what you think about our website and any suggestions for products you would like to see here. We would also love to see your weaving projects and feature them on our projects photo gallery. You can get in touch using the contact form or by emailing us at info@weavinglooms.co.uk
