Speedy Weaving

I’ve always been a bit of a sucker for modular projects…I’m just not terribly good at finishing them.

I’ve got a granny square blanket….which has been stuck at cat-sized for a while.

I’ve got 10 miter squares done…out of…uh…I’m not sure quite how many I’m supposed to make to seam up into a decent sized blanket.

When I found out about the Zoom Loom, I figured it might be a good way to sample for weaving…and a good way to use up some of my leftover balls of yarn.  What is a zoom loom you might wonder…it’s a handheld mini-loom of the pin-loom variety.  It turns out squares that are 4-inches x 4-inches (on the loom) though they are a little smaller once popped off the loom and the yarn has bounced back from being stretched out.

Most of my yarn is fingering weight, which does not appear to be ideal for the zoom loom…at least not without some fussing about.  In the squares above, the one in the back was made by just warping up the loom and weaving with the yarn held single.  The square on the top was warped with the yarn singled, then I wove two passes to try to fill it in a bit…that was better, but the square looked kinda off balance to me (they both would benefit from a washing and light blocking).

Unlike a regular loom, the zoom loom’s sett/picks per inch is fixed – the only way to really adjust the density of the fabric is to change the yarn up….

or do like I did and hold your yarn doubled throughout 😉

I found I very much preferred the finished square with the yarn held doubled – at least when I’m weaving with fingering weight yarn.

Setting up the zoom loom is really easy, and the weaving goes by quickly – I’m hoping using this between my various other crafts will get me a pile of squares….that may or may not sit a while before I get to seaming them up for a blanket 😉

If you’re curious about how the zoom loom works, Schacht made a quick instructional video that you can watch here.