If it is natural to weave, it should also be natural to make one's own loom, and
The Pin Loom
is simple in both the making and the working, with material usually close at hand. The necessary wood you will find at the nearest carpenter-shop, if not in your own home, and for the rest, a paper of strong, large-size pins, a yard of colored cord, and one ordinary carpet-tack are all that is needed.
Make the frame for the loom of a smooth piece of soft pine-board, fifteen inches long by nine inches wide ([Fig. 12]). Make the heddles of two flat sticks, nine inches long, half an inch wide, and one-eighth of an inch thick (Figs. 13 and 14). From another flat stick of the same thickness, nine inches long by one inch wide, make the shuttle ([Fig. 15]).
Fig. [13].—Heddle.
Fig. [14].—Heddle.
With a pencil and ruler draw two straight lines across the board, the first one inch and a half from the top edge, the other two inches and a half from the bottom edge. This will make the lines just eleven inches apart. On these lines, beginning one inch from the side edge of the board, make a row of dots exactly one-quarter of an inch apart, twenty-nine dots on each line, as in [Fig. 12]. At each corner of the board, one inch above the upper line and one inch below the lower line, draw a short line, and on each short line, three-quarters of an inch from the side edge, make one dot.