New looms

I have been looking over the new looms I purchased from CinDWood Crafts. Since I have the 36" large gauged one already, I do know that there is, or can be, a problem with the center area of the loom "flexing". My very first started project on the 36" loom had to be frogged because of this "flex" problem.

I had started a baby ghan and it was coming out really pretty, then I noticed that the sides seemed to be growing faster then the center. So I stopped to see if I could figure out what I was doing wrong. It really didn't take me long to see that the gap between the two rows of pegs at either end of the board was much wider then the gap in the center of the board. The closer you got to the center the small that gap was.

I could have continued working on it but I knew that when the piece was done it was going to look like one of those huge bows that at one point in history decorated everything. It would be wide on the ends and collapsed in the center. Not good, not good at all. I frogged that piece. I then contacted Cindy to talk about this problem. She told me that others had experienced this same thing and that was why she provided the yarn guide. That guide helps you learn to wrap that center portion of the board much looser. I started to use the guide and that made all the difference in that section of the board.

You see it is the nature of the beast that we have to deal with. The longer a piece of wood the more it can flex in the center area. This is true of many things. If you take a very short piece of wood and try to bend it you would find it very difficult. Take a longer piece and bending it in the center becomes easier. The longer the piece the more that center area will "flex".

So you have a loom with two sections that can both flex and you are wrapping the pegs on it with yarn (most people use yarn but other stuff can be used). What is going to happen is the ends are not going to move, but that center section is. Wrapping loosely throughout that area is absolutely necessary, the longer the board the worse the problem.

So here I am thinking about a recent email I received from Cindy about how she is thinking on this problem a how to make a piece to prevent this. She is just starting the thoughts but she is a working woman with a family and the loom business, so it will take a while for her to figure out the cure.

In the meantime, I pulled out the new 48" long straight loom and flexed the center of the board. Oh boy, just a tiny squeeze and those two sides meet in the center. This one will need some extreme care in wrapping or blocks of some kind will be in order. I took the board to the hubby. He had not yet seen this board, no I never hide things from him, I had just received the loom and other things were on mind and happening. After all the loom just got here on Monday, so give me time to show him. He knew they were coming. I couldn't help the excitement over getting a couple larger looms (just like he knows I now have a 48" 1/2" gauged S loom arriving soon).

He looked over the board and I told him what the problem would be. I don't want to have to do extra special care in wrapping. I want to do some lace knitting on this one, and that will pull more then a simple regular wrap. I would also like to try cables, more then the little experiments I have tried and frogged.

He says that it would be a simple thing to make a couple of small blocks for me to fit between the two sides of the board to hold those sides in place. Yea right, he always says simple then it turns into something a bit more complex then he expected. He needs to see how the yarn and stitches fit the loom and what I have to do to work the board before he makes a final determination on how to fix that flex.

As for the other loom, the huge round one, well I do have plans for that one. I have this cone, not any old cone like you have seen, it is huge. It has on it a very thin yellow plastic cording. The spool stands about 14" high and there is a lot of this thin cord wrapping on the spool. I picked this up for a couple of bucks quite a while back. My plans had been to crochet some mesh bags for the beach. Then I got busy looming and the cord sort of got put to the side. This huge round loom would be perfect for making those “mesh bags” for the beach with little to no trouble (or so I think, I get into trouble with that thinking thing).

Gee, I keep going into the craft room just to look at these new looms. They are so huge that my mind keeps telling me that I saw wrong and I have to check to make it right.