A new toy came in the mail and completely derailed my morning’s plans.

Schact Zoom Loom

Weaving is one of those arts that I’m not sure I could really get into since so much of it seems like set up to me (wrapping the warp) and so little of it seems like actual weaving. However, I’ve been wanting to give this little Zoom Loom a try for a while, and I’m glad I did. It was easy to learn, you essentially just wrap yarn around the pins along the edges in different ways for three layers, then you take a long pin and weave the remaining yarn over and under the established strands. I found the instructions to be really clear up until the point where you actually start weaving. Before that, the booklet was very specific about which pins you go between, but then it wasn’t.

Illustration of where exactly to weave.

In case anyone else was confused by this, here’s a little diagram. Notice that the pins are arranged in sets of 3 up and down the left and right sides of the loom. This photo was taken in the middle of a weaving action. The yarn came out on the right hand side below the pin marked with a pink circle. It was then threaded between the two pins marked with green circles and woven over, under, over, under, etc. the strands of yarn until it reached the left side. This is the important bit: the tip of the needle should be placed to the outside of the pink pin (below it). You can think of it as going around the outer edge of the group of three pins. The next step will be to pull the yarn through, then thread the needle from left to right between the two green pins, once again going over, under, over, under, etc. all the way across. If you look at the finished section below the needle, you’ll notice that the yarn wrapping around the sets of 3 needles should look kind of like an ‘m’. Hope that helps someone!

Left: Socks that Rock Lightweight, Right: SG Traveller

I did two squares. The left square was with a fingering weight yarn, BMFA Socks that Rock Lightweight. I kind of messed this one up a bit and I think it’s curling because STR is a very high twist yarn, but hey, it was my first. The right square was done with a DK weight yarn, Sanguine Gryphon Traveller. Both are 100% Merino wool but the Traveller is thicker and less tightly twisted, which made a nicer and more cohesive square overall. I timed myself, the second one took me 25 minutes to weave. They both measure about 3.75″ square. The real test will be whether I like sewing these little squares together into a larger project!

BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight, colorway Comfort & Joy

In other news, I finally perfected my sock toe! It took ripping back 3 times, but I’m happy with it now. At first I tried regular linen stitch to match the heel, but it was far too tight and pulled the fabric in too much. I frogged back further to begin the toe earlier and at Audry’s suggestion, I tried a plain knit row in between the linen stitch rows, which I think makes this technically a half linen stitch.

Regular linen stitch on the heel.

It’s bothering my OCD tendencies just a tad that the heel and the toe do not exactly match, but the different fabrics are both pleasing in their own right, and quite frankly I’m just not going to knit that toe again (well, until I reach the second toe). The fit is right, the proportions are right, so I’m just going to let it be.

Have you given weaving, or knitting ‘woven-like’ stitches, a try? What’s been inspiring you lately? Leave a comment below to share!