Like a dog alerting to the small of cooking sausage, I noticed a loom I hadn’t seen before on the table of one of my students while teaching at SOAR. It turns out it was made by one of my favorite small loom makers, Janet Fox of Handywomanshop.com, but I had never seen one in person.
My backpacking loom was made by Jim Hokett and it is the lightest loom I can find that will allow me to weave small tapestries at 12 epi when hiking. Of course for backpacking I need something that is not only very light, but also very small but sturdy so I don’t break it in my backpack. Since Jim retired in 2019 I’ve been looking for a replacement, worried about the day that I’d lose or break his loom dropping it somewhere in the backcountry. When I picked up Emma’s loom at SOAR, I knew I’d found what I was looking for.
Backpacking in Colorado with my trusty tiny Hokett loom.
As soon as I got home I poured over the Handywoman Shop website and sure enough, she makes a tiny loom made of bamboo weighing less than 2 ounces. It didn’t take me any time to place that order. In the interest of science, I weighed both the Hokett loom and the Handywoman Shop loom. Both had tapestries on them as shown in the photo so I’ll have to adjust my “science” when they’re both empty.
Handywoman Shop 6epi loom = 43 grams (1.5 ounces)
Hockett tiny loom 6 dent = 52.3 grams (1.8 ounces)
Handywoman Shop bamboo loom on the left, my trusty Hokett tiny loom on the right. Both are 6 dent looms.
Of course the weight savings on the new loom pleases me to no end. Bamboo is the answer!
Below is an example of my lightest travel kit. Most of these items are ones I’d take backpacking. I do not bring a bound sketchbook like this. I make sewn folios of watercolor paper because a book is too heavy. But other than that, this is what I take on the trails.
tapestry yarn wrapped on matte board
small amounts of warp in two sizes
a tiny loom
a turkish spindle and dyed locks or maybe roving
shed stick, tapestry fork, one tapestry bobbin, needles
drawing pen, water brush, tiny watercolor kit, and paper to draw/write on
and the scissors on my tiny pocket knife
My backpacking/travel tapestry kit
I’ve been playing with this loom this week and have enjoyed watching the colors change in this handspun as I weave it into a tiny piece. The loom is indeed lightweight and this 6-dent version is perfect for my favored 12 epi on these tiny pieces. I have another of these looms at 8 epi as well.
Handspyun woven at 12 epi on a small Handywoman Shop bamboo loom.
Frankly I can’t wait to get back on the trail with this loom. #WaitingForSummer