The Mirrix Tapestry & Bead Looms Blog

I have a basket where all my yarn scraps go. In it is everything from silk to wool; hand-dyed, hand-spun, commercial; every color of the rainbow. The pile just keeps getting bigger because I never know what to do with scraps. 

I am sure many of you have the same problem, and so today we are launching a challenge (with prizes): The Yarn Scrap Challenge! 

Warp tension, as every tapestry or bead weaver knows, is one of the most important factors in any weaving. Both the amount of tension and the evenness of tension is important and the difference between good tension and bad tension can make or break a piece. A few weeks ago a customer emailed me about a class she took where students had to use the looms provided. To warp, pieces of warp were cut and each thread was tied individually. She ended up quitting the class. Her explanation of her experience has stuck with me and I keep thinking about the difference that having a loom with a tensioning device built in (like a Mirrix) makes for bead or weft-faced/tapestry weaving. 

I don't have a loom where you need to tie individual warp threads, but I do have a basic frame that I made a few years ago that I warped for tapestry alongside a Mirrix to test see what difference an on-loom tensioning device makes.