Another hobby loomin?

I’m well known for going to our guild on the bus and the bus drivers are quite used to Wikkidknitter and myself carting our wheels around to various venues. In fact we have often joked about spinning on the tram here in Nottingham.

So knowing that I have to negotiate steps and door, why do I always come back from guild meeting with more than I take?? This happens so often that I tend to take an empty bag for the odd fleece that might come my way.

However, at the last meeting I turned up with two wheels fully expecting to leave empty handed as the herring wheel was going on to a new home. But I still managed to come home with a loom!! It was an old inkle loom, looking rather dirty and handmade with an abandoned piece of work on it where someone had tried to weave and failed.

After giving it a quick clean and disposing of the rough string heddles I gave it a go. Took a few experiments to get the hang of it and using an old plastic ruler as a beater didn’t really help but I think I am getting there now especially as I have found that an old heavy letter opener from my day job makes a fine beater.

My first few attempts were.. Er.. Interesting but I soon got the hang of it but I am finding the edges a bit of a challenge to keep neat.

Locating a pattern generator on the Internet helped in placing the colours but I really want to try the pickup method to give me more scope for pattern design.

Any advice on the best threads to use etc would be appreciated.thanks.