My Toika Floor Loom
A new step in my weaving journey
3rd February 2022
I have a new loom! She's an 8 shaft, 10 treadle Countermarch Toika floor loom, second hand, still with some notes left on it in Swedish from one of the previous owners.
Her name is Sonja, inspired by a weaver I met on a placement in Slovakia who had her own, non-computerised, floor loom. She created beautiful woven pieces, and it was so different from all of the computer aided looms from university and for some reason I just hadn't realised that such detail and beauty could still be achieved with a loom like that. So with the help of a Worshipful Weavers grant, I set out to find my own.
A loom is a beautiful and complex structure. At first I didn't understand the way mine worked. It has taken months of learning and failing and trying again, to reach the point where I can weave on it. It has been difficult but finally I am there, and weaving on my first ever warp.
