It's time to talk about some of my favorite sites. As some of you know, I've been dithering around trying to learn how to weave Navajo rugs. If you look at a woven rug, it doesn't look that hard to do, but believe me, there are many ways to go wrong.
Anyway, I received succinct and useful advice from Randall Hayden at Hayden Loom and Ainadamar Weaving , who has a website about his business: Navajo Style Looms, Tools, Instruction and Weavings.
http://www.haydenloom.com/
If you are at all interested in Navajo weaving, you really should visit his site, because he makes looms for weaving Navajo rugs, both for students and for proficient weavers. He teaches Navajo weaving. What a joy it would be to sign up for his class. Too bad it's so far from Ohio. He lives in Southern California. He also offers other equipment and a book pertinent to Navajo rug weaving called Navajo Weaving Way The Path from Fleece to Rug . You can buy it directly from his website, and it would make an excellent Christmas gift, especially if you are thinking of what to send me.
He also does spinning wheel refurbishing and repair.
My second Navajo rug is turning out a little better than the first. Still I am using my two harness rug loom, which is not the best thing to use if you are making Navajo rugs, because it is really hard to pack in the weft firmly enough, and you can't get the tension tight enough on the warp. So you end up breaking a lot of warp strings, as you try packing in the weft by hand, and you are constantly going to the back of the loom to tighten up your warp. Overall, it's very frustrating and takes forever. You'd be wiser and do better to buy a Navajo rug weaving loom from Randall Hayden at Hayden Loom.
Right now, I don't know if I'll ever have time to be serious about making Navajo rugs, but if more time is found, you may be sure that I'll buy a loom for Navajo rugs, probably from Randall Hayden at Hayden Loom and Ainadamar Weaving.
(Once a little "damage control" is done. I'll post pictures of my second Navajo rug. --I have to go in and try to fix some broken warp strings, and tidy up my selvedges. )
