Potholder and Teddy Fabric

Well, my opinion is in:  22 loopers are too many to get into a 7" space.  I ended up taking out the ones on the end pegs, leaving 20 and still have a very stiff mat.  It will be great for a table protector for hot dishes.  It finished at 7" square, and a bit bigger than I prefer for a potholder.

The other potholder in the photo is one that my daughter Becky made years ago.  It is still one of just a few that I grab first, and it's pretty, too!  It  has only 13 loopers per side.  If I make another frame, I'll make it so the loops stretch 6 1/2" - 7", and have 16 pegs per side.

The pegs worked great!  No loopers slipped off accidently, as it seemed to do when I was a kid.  I used a  size I/9 crochet hook to pack in the loops, and then to hook the edge loops together to finish it.  I think an afghan hook of that size would work even better, because it could be used for the weaving also.  I used a bent coat-hanger.

Here is the final Teddy fabric for this warp.  It took the photo for me to notice a big mistake.  Since I will be cutting small pieces from this fabric, I will probably  be able to work around it.  I'm hoping I will be able to get enough woven.  Hope I don't have to start weaving with a stick shuttle at the end!  It's going to be close.

The weft yarn is a light orange 9/2 wool (90% wool, 10% nylon).  I need to get out to the studio to wind another bobbin and get it finished.

Homemade Potholder Loom

I was reading somewhere today about sock loopers for potholders, and it reminded me that I had a bunch of old holey socks out in the studio.  I didn't have a potholder loom, so after I cut a few loopers from the socks, I figured out how far they could stretch, so I could decide how big to make the loom.  My loopers stretch about 8". 

In the basement in Bob's shop, I found some scrap wood and cut the four sides for the loom, assembled them, and gave the frame a bright red coat of paint.

I marked out the placement for the pegs, (22 per side), and then headed for Ace Hardware to see if I could find anything that wasn't too expensive to use for them.

I found a box of trim screws, with a nice small rounded head, and the box included the correct size star bit.  There are probably enough left over to make another loom.  I couldn't find anything shorter than 1 5/8", though, so Bob helped me make the loom thicker to accommodate the length.  He was helpful and set up the drill press and drilled all 88 pilot holes for me.  What a sweetie, and that was after being on his feet all day at work!

I'm testing it out with a log cabin layout.  If I make another one, I will probably put fewer pegs on a side (maybe 20).  I'll see if I have trouble weaving 22 rows first.  I can always cut the loopers a little narrower.  I cut this batch 1" wide.