Backstrap weaving footrest

ok.. I am back working on my blog after a long time!



Thanks to Laverne Waddington for encouraging me to go back and post things.

I have been working with of her instructions on backstrap weaving, but our living room does not have any good places for me to hook up a backstrap loom, and still watch the TV, and or face the room to visit with people. (I don't like to always have my back to the room.) I also intend to take my backstrap loom out for demos, and a lot of demo venues don't have any good places to hook up a loom as still be seen by the people walking past.


Here's my solution:


A foot brace hooked to a board to sit on with 3/8" diameter threaded rod.
The boards came from the scrap pile of lumber I keep in my shop. The striped blanket is a handy cushion. The longer peice of threaded rod is cut down to 21" so that it not longer than my 22" loom bars. The shorter piece of threaded rod is about 8" long. I set up the loom, adjusted the bolts so that the brace fit my legs, and then took the threaded rod back out to the shop and cut it about 1" longer than I needed it. The foot brace is 16" long, with 2 holes in the center, and I would not make it any shorter. (I have large feet; men's size 10 shoes or a 43 european size.) The long "hex nut" looking thing is a special connector I found at the hardwear store, for about $1.50. It connects the two pieces of threaded rod together.


The cross-peice that sticks up, can be loosened, and twisted down to the side, so it takes up less room. In the future, I will probablly make that piece a little longer, so that the loom bar does not rest on my feet.


So.. although my solution is not 'pretty' it is working. After I have lived with the brace for a while, I can use 'new' or 'better' lumber and the whole contraption will look prettier

The two pictures above are an 'overview'

of how the footbrace goes together without me sitting in it.

On the left, you can see a closer view of my hardwear.

Below is what I see while I am weaving.