Loom Day Two: Frigga lives!

Made some progress on the loom, which may seem like little things, but it took some ingenuity to engineer it to work the way I need it to...still need to make some adjustments, as you will see.

Here the crotches are screwed onto the uprights.

This is my first go at the heddle support rods.  I needed to adjust the shape of the Y where the heddle rod will rest--the first attempt, the heddle rod will barely stay in place, but one nudge and it'll fall.  I looked at a couple looms and came up with an improved shape.  Now the heddle rests comfortably on there--no risk of falling off.

Here it is set up!  I knew it needed just a couple more minor changes before it is ready to warp!

I found (again) and started watching the Sami/Norwegian video of a woman who was demonstrating how to set up the loom, starting with a woven band with weft threads that become the warp threads of a woven piece.  I have a bunch of Fisherman's wool that was given to me recently and this will be a great project to use that yarn.  I think I'd like to try this...

One of the things that I realized, however, is that the woman in the video is weaving on a loom where the top beam is at her head level.  The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.  Anything out of reach is just silly, so I decided late today that the loom needed to be shorter.  I unscrewed the crotches and top support and chopped another foot off the top.  I reassembled the pieces; now the top beam is sitting at about 62" instead of a ridiculous 78".  Now she feels right.  Maybe it seems weird, but she feels alive!  She even told me her name.  Frigga.

First, though, I need to finish weaving the Perle Cotton piece I have on my inkle loom.  Better get on it!