I am very new to weaving (one class) and I got a knitter's loom for Christmas. I thought I wanted a rigid heddle. What is the difference? I want it to be versatile enough to do scarves, dish towels and other projects. Any help would be so appreciated.
A Knitters loom is a rigid heddle loom, with the added advantage that it folds for storage. I have one and love it! Also, it was designed so that it could use knitting yarns instead of weaving yarns, so the rigid heddles are made with larger slots and holes, ideal for worsted and fashion yarns. It also takes the more standard sized Ashford rigid heddles, so its very versatile and will do what you want it to do. I do recommend eventually splashing out for the second heddle kit.
The rigid heddle refers to the way that the sheds are changed on the loom: on a rigid heddle loom the beater and the shafts are combined into the one device that alternately lifts and lowers the warp threads so you can change sheds, thats all. Any loom that works that way is a rigid heddle loom, regardless of what else the manufacturer decides to call it.
You have a lovely loom there, I hope you get hours of enjoyment out of it. There are a couple of books in the Interweave bookshop that really extend what can be done on these looms once you have mastered the basics as well as some excellent dvd's for those who are more visual learners.
Thanks for that great reply Caroline. I was wondering about that also and came to that conclusion on my own but it's good to see the clarification. I just got my first loom and I'm looking upgrade my Ashford knitting loom from 20 inches to 32 inches and add in the second heddle. I'm using pick up sticks at the moment and that's neat too.
Copyright (C) 2013 Interweave Press, LLCUse of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms and Privacy Policy, updated March 2007
