I've talked before about my stat counter and how much I love seeing what brings people who don't know me here. Before it was naughty vegetables that brought strangers to my corner of the internet. These days it's the post about my Spears Loom.
I know from experience that weaving info is harder to come by than knitting info, and that details about the nitty-gritty of choosing a rigid heddle are even harder. Since writing the above-mentioned post, I graduated to a 19" Glimakra Emilia. I mostly like it, and I'm going to say why. First, though, a quick word about the Spears loom.
If you find yourself with a Spears loom, or a similar loom that is/was marketed as a toy, I think the trick to getting good results is to remember that it is still a loom. I ran into trouble when I was measuring my warp threads. Rather than setting up a makeshift warping board, I measured the warp threads by hand with a yard stick. This was not only way more of a pain than doing it right would have been, but since wool is stretchy, it meant my warp threads were all slightly different lengths, which is part of why so many of them broke mid-project.
(On a side note, the instruction manual for the Spears loom was what led me astray. It also contained a racial slur, in reference to a brown color in one of the sample projects. Again, it's from the early 60s, but still. Really altogether terrible and unhelpful.)
Anyway, on to the Glimakra. First, quick details. I bought mine online from Paradise Fibers. It was a great experience. When I bought it, I had woven on a floor loom and on the Spears. After much waffling, I finally went with the Glimakra because I liked the look of it. This post features a couple of the projects I've finished on it most recently - the scarf with a single heddle and the towels with two. After three years of use (but with no experience on other rigid heddle looms), here's what I think.
The good:
More wood and metal than plastic. On a lot of rigid heddle looms, the ratchets that let you tighten the warp are plastic. On the Glimakra Emilia, they are metal. In fact, pretty much anything on this loom that is plastic (the heddles, for example) has to be plastic.
Easy to use second heddle. Being able to add a second heddle means that you can use finer yarns and make thinner fabrics. This was important to me.
Can handle long warps. Some looms have beams across the back (for stability, I suppose) that limit how long your warp can be. (A long warp is going to have to wrap around the back end of the loom more times, and thus be thicker.) Glimakra does a beam there, but it is far enough forward that it doesn't seem to affect the possible length of your warp.
Good weaving experience. I have to be honest: I don't have a ton of experience weaving on other rigid heddles. But one thing I was worried about was that the experience of weaving on one wouldn't be as fun as weaving on a floor loom. It's a fact that I still think I'll buy a floor loom one day. There are drafts (weaving patterns) you just can't do on a rigid heddle, even with two heddles. But until that point, any complaints about weaving that I've had have been corrected when I checked the tightness of my warp.
Folds. I'm not going to lie; even when folded, it takes up a pretty good amount of space. But when I had to move out of my studio, it was nice to be able to fold it up (with the project in the picture still on it!) to make it slightly easier to move.
Nice and wide. I love the 19" width. Much wider, and I think I'd have difficulty beating evenly. Much narrower and I would feel constrained.
Now the less good:
The stand. Oh my gosh, is this stand terrible to set up. The loom screws into it (rather than resting on it), and the stand isn't able to stay upright on its own until the loom is screwed in. The instructions for the stand tell you that it is best to put the loom on the stand with a helper, and they aren't lying. This, in my opinion, is a serious flaw.
Taking the loom on and off the stand while a project is on it is a risky business, a fact I learned when I had to move out of my studio before finishing the towels pictured above. When I watched the KnitPicks tutorial on weaving and saw how easily the Kromski Harp comes off and on its stand, I felt a bit weepy. (The Kromski also functions as a warping board, which is neat. But I personally don't like how the heddles sit upright rather than hanging.)
The stand is also not as sturdy as I would like. There was an ordeal with tightening the carriage bolts that attach the loom to the stand (in an effort to make it less wobbly) that I'd rather not relive. (Don't let your spouse/significant other hammer your loom! Even if s/he is very careful, if there is loom damage, it will cause marital strain. The loom and our marriage are fine, but it was touch and go for a few moments.)
Actually, that's really it for out-and-out drawbacks. It's a doozy, though - enough so that I have seriously considered getting a different loom.
What say you, though? If you care enough about rigid heddle looms to have read this far, I'd love to hear what you think. Have you tried out others? Are any of my complaints or compliments just a result of my limited experience? Which ones are you thinking about buying?
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