Oh, the joy of yarn in our hands!

Weaving is magical. You start with yarn, and you end up with fabric. Narrow or wide, it doesn't matter -- the yarns dance and interlace, and cloth happens as a result.

Small weaving tools are especially satisfying, because they're intimate: you are right there in the moment, completely present, with your hands in the yarns -- for the entire time you're weaving. When you're a handspinner, the yarns are often those you've made yourself -- leading to new depths of pleasure and magic.

You honour the yarns as you weave.
You touch the yarns, and they touch you.

Portable weaving:
The Semi-Rigid Heddle

Be unencumbered. This little tool lets you take small weaving projects wherever you go. It's like a rigid heddle, but its supple TexSolv "eyes" make threading fast and easy. Lightweight, it puts no strain on the warp. The beads on the lower edge stabilize it for comfortable weaving.

Put a simple knot at each end of the warp, use a couple of small hardware-store clamps to hold it taut, and you're ready to weave warp-faced bands in plainweave -- anywhere. It's like an inkle loom without all the wood. It's so compact you can carry it in a sandwich bag, even with a weaving in progress.

Traditional European rigid heddles were made of wood, antler, bone, metal, and combinations of those materials. Most were made with very small "eyes", which suited them for weaving only fine yarns -- and producing only ribbons and lightweight, narrow tapes.

The large eyes in the TexSolv heddles can handle yarns ranging from fine and delicate to chunky and textured. The nature of the woven band depends on the yarns used to weave it: fine threads will produce a ribbon, heavy yarns will produce a strap. At all widths, the warp is ready and eager for pickup patterning -- everything from brocades to woven lace.

The semi-rigid heddle is simple and versatile, but most of all, it's fun! It comes with a small booklet to help you get started.

Made by my own hands, and guaranteed for life.
$35.00, plus shipping.

Get yourself started:
Tablet Weaving Kit

Tablet weaving is one of the earliest weaving techniques known to man. From the Iron Age onward, tablet-woven bands were the basis for many important (and beautiful) household goods across the European continent.

Intricate or plain-faced, tablet weaving is a lot of fun. Even simple weavings have a satisfying texture and beauty -- and if you want a firm, durable, non-stretchy strap, a tablet-woven band just can't be beat.

This kit introduces tablet weaving and takes the mystery out of how to turn yarns into a woven band, using pieces of cardboard instead of a loom. To get you started right away, the kit offers a weaving-in-progress: a simple spiralling band (right) woven on just two tablets! You can literally unpack the kit, tie or clamp the ends of the warp, sit down, and weave. A pictorial introduction to tablet weaving explains how it all works and guides you through the steps of weaving. In addition, there are 18 more tablets and an annotated book list -- everything you'll need for your next leap forward.

The kit contains:
• a narrow band, pre-threaded on two tablets;
• 18 additional tablets;
• two E-Z bob bobbins to hold the weft;
• a pictorial introduction to tablet weaving;
• directions for the spiralling narrow band;
• an annotated booklist.

$17.00, plus shipping.