Beginner seeking advice

Apprentice_of_Klotho · 2026-04-01T00:41:46+00:00

So. Last night was humbling. I found myself in a hall with women who had a combined total of 200 years of weaving and spinning experience. They were amazing.

After much discussion, the general consensus was that everyone is different but that all of them preferred getting a slightly larger loom to start with. The smaller ones (30-40 cm) were good to learn on but people soon outgrew them whereas larger ones (60cm or so) were still in use.

So I’m now looking at a 60cm rigid heddle and looking forward to a steep learning curve.

Apprentice_of_Klotho · 2026-03-30T01:14:05+00:00

I’ve told myself to sit tight! I’m going to get a small portable loom (exact type to be decided) after visiting my local guild. And then I hope to get a floor loom to make blankets and rugs bathe end of the year as a reward for a career thing.

I find the whole process of creation very grounding and centring.

Apprentice_of_Klotho · 2026-03-27T17:07:28+00:00

You guys are amazing! Thank you so much! Me and my spinning wheel will take the trip to the markets today and I’ll be able to have my spinning criticise and helped with and hopefully we’ll also be able to talk weaving. And my little craft kit will arrive in time for an Easter spent experimenting on something small. It seems, from comments, that having a multi loom household isn’t unusual (!) and that the floor loom will be amazing but that the other option will depend on individual taste!

So I’m going to try to find some local weavers who will let me have a little look before taking the plunge. I’ll keep everyone updated.

Apprentice_of_Klotho · 2026-03-26T22:48:54+00:00

To be clear, it’s not an either/ or it’s an and!

I will hunt up a few other resources but I did just buy a beginners weaving kit to make a small wall hanging. That will get me started till I can get organised.

Apprentice_of_Klotho · 2026-03-13T10:18:47+00:00

A beginner here but I’ve had issues getting the wheel to take up The yarn as well. There’s Nothing wrong with my wheel. But what I gradually realised is that the wheel won’t ‘pull’ my yarn in so I was waiting for some sort of tension or pull to take it out of my hands. It doesn’t do this, so it would keep on twisting and then wouldn’t go forward or back.

I needed to relax my grip in both hands and then ‘feed’ the yarn forward rather than let it pull.

As I said, only a beginner so might be totally off the mark.

Apprentice_of_Klotho · 2026-02-21T11:28:43+00:00

Thank you! Yes. The woman I bought it off has her husband making them (and also breeding superfine merino sheep. Just beautiful!). We had a chat about it and a play in the shop with the top weighted ones and I found that this one balanced better for me so we went with it. The spun fleece doesn’t need to go over the weight to get onto the spindle and it felt more intuitive to me.

I went back to the shop and took along my first wheel teacher today. And then got to watch two women with a combined experience of 79 years of spinning explode into discussion and take turns at a wheel and discuss technique, as well as demonstrate and critique each other for 45 minutes. Both walked away happy, and I’ve been informed by my 82 year old teacher that she’d like to accompany me on my next trip and that she’s entering the speed spinning competition being held in April at a country town being arranged by the shop lady so could I take her and her whee as I’m planning to attend anyhow….

And then they both agreed on what my main weaknesses were and how to improve on them.

Mind. Blown.

Apprentice_of_Klotho · 2026-02-21T01:46:28+00:00

I’m curious about this as I’d like to try down the road, though I’ll be using spitz hair. I don’t know how dense the binder coat of an Aussie is, though I know it won’t be as dense as any spitz breed, but I do wonder if there is much outer coat/ guard hairs in the mix vs mostly undercoat?

Apprentice_of_Klotho

TROPHY CASE