Backstrap Loom (Prototype and Factoids)

In which JB talks about his backstrap loom prototype and geeks out about the history of weaving (and computers).

Twitter: @goodandbasic

Instagram: @good_and_basic

[youtube]

brilliant, ill put this knowledge under my assets list, very well done!

[Kineth]

I would like to see more!
My first weaving experience was tablet weaving, it saves the trouble of setting up the heddle and sword, but damn if it doesn't take a whole deck of cards to make the tablets.

[Just_Sara]

Elewys of Finchenfeld (not sure I spelled that right) does some fantastic tablet weaving tutorials, by the way.

[pineberry]

Oh man, weaving is my jam! I've been designing and making 4-shaft looms, I have a 26inch (I think, cant remember) loom, and a small 2inch "pocket sized" loom, well, easy to fit in a bag size.
If you want to see them and use them as reference, let me know. The small one I originally made as a paper printout for foamboard, but I've been experimenting with 3d printing. The larger one is made with foamboard, but I plan to upgrade to wood, as it just it better structure wise. Though now that I think about it, could do metal as well. As I'm in a welding class currently.
I live in Provo btw, so should be close enough, maybe, if you want to try them.

[WillZ]

The Loom: the only modern work station with threads but no cores

[ketv]

Random thoughts in no particular order:

The flying shuttle had another key advantage - the beam could be wider than the weaver's arm span - farther than the weaver could throw a bobbin shuttle.

As you move to using a wider warp, lay the weft in sort of a crescent moon pattern, closer to you at the selvedges with a broader gap in the center, before beating it. If you pull it straight across, you'll wind up with either an irregular tension or else have the weft pull the selvedges crooked.

If you want really, really warm woven goods, learn to tie rya knots and weave a carpet. (Only in modern Western culture do we waste carpet on the floor!)

I'm astonished that knitting (or crochet, or Nålbinding) are not Stone Age crafts - the equipment is so simple and easy to carry, the work goes fast compared with a backstrap loom, and the result is warm. But no, they seem to have appeared only in the Iron Age.

I'm grateful for mechanical spinning frames and looms. People in pre-industrial cultures spent an amazing fraction of their waking hours making textiles. I'm glad that industry allows me to spend my time on more interesting things than spinning! (It's fascinating until you know how. After a while it's either meditation or drudgery.)

[IlusysSystems]

This is super cool. I would be so hyped to automate and speed up this process. Perhaps I make a prototype of this meditation device myself :)

[PKMartin]

Could you use something like a hair comb for seating the weft threads, or does the fork give you a functional advantage in being able to tap different areas by differing amounts? A tutorial would be fun, or just a timelapse of you working on it for half an hour or so gradually building up more woven cloth.

[dellarosa]

This is so interesting! I would love love love a tutorial.

[dhawthorne]

The memory modules from Apollo actually were woven. It is called Core Rope Memory.

[PeaceLoveAndRico]

i said this about knitting because of the LOL(little old lady) protocols for wiring the space machinery with knitting needles, but i guess weaving is actually "the first we knew of ones and zeros..."

or i guess: we are nothing without fiber...

[OleanderStarr]

If you threaded your heddle stick from underneath the warp, you could tie a string on the ends and use your foot to open the shed to keep both your hands free to check your shed and pass the shuttle. Sitting in a chair would make this easier too.

[luablau]

I think that we can weave a twill pattern if we use more than one rod with string to separare the warps, each of them rising a different set of threads?

And how about something like another sword to beat the wefts from between the warps?

Also, I'm thinking about attaching the far rod to a counterweight over a pulley to keep tension (and a rope to pull if I need to relief the tension) and maybe attach the back strap to the chair if it gets uncomfortable. A fanny pack used to cause me pain in the lower back when I was a teen and if it's really a "back" strap I probably won't like.

[Just_Sara]

Are you going to make an inkle loom, maybe a box loom? Curious! This is stuff I’ve actually just started trying. 🙂

[kingsrook]

Obligatory mention that the computer programs on Apollo 11 were woven metal to prevent malfunctions

[johnburr]

Could you have two people working opposite each other and working toward each other somehow?

[danielweathers]

Who else is here bc they paused the video to come read all the comments about beating WAP with a fork?