Hand loom

“ Cut the woof strips several inches longer than the width of the loom. Weave the first strip, leaving a piece at each side. Thread a tape needle with one end and weave it in and out the three warp threads on the rod. Then cut it off close to the edge. Finish off all the ends in this way. When the work is removed from the loom, press the edges flat with a warm iron. It is a little easier to keep the pattern right by weaving in this way, and the work resembles the real matting more nearly. Use a tape needle for weaving raffia. ”

“ Make a buttonhole stitch and return in the same manner over the face of the loom, around to the top ring, where you make a buttonhole stitch and return, until the whole warp is strung. Care should be taken to make it firm and tight. Hold the string and ring firmly in the left hand while making the buttonhole stitch with the right. Cut the woof cords long enough to allow a fringe on each side of the hammock. Weave each cord separately, tying in pairs around the rods. Stripes of one or more colors can be woven at each end or at intervals through the hammock. ”

“ It has been found desirable with children to push about an inch of woof threads close to the head piece and then fill in the space. Care should be taken not to pull the woof too tight. If these directions are followed and the warp is strung correctly the strings will not slip out of the notches. In adjusting the loom it will be found that the width from rod to rod is a little more than is required. For instance, for a rug nine inches wide, the width from rod to rod will be about nine and one-half inches. ”

“ If this is done in color, it makes a pretty seam on the top of the foot and front of the ankle. The top may be finished by crocheting a beading and scallops of the colored wool. Run a ribbon or worsted cord through the beading. If desired, the long edges may be laced together with ribbon one-half inch wide. Baby shoes are made in the same way. To ascertain what length to adjust the loom, measure the sole, then up, back of the heel, to a point above the ankle. For the width, measure around the foot. Finish the cord with tassels or balls. ”

“ Small Navajo blankets can be woven on the loom. Draw the pattern and place under the warp, fastening it to the side rods. Use warp or carpet thread for the warp, and weave with a tape or upholstery needle. One may weave all the pattern first, and then put in the filling; while another will weave as the Indians do, filling in from one part of the pattern to the other by threading the needle with a different color. ”

“ In weaving, use two woof threads of white and four of green to make the square correct. The [Pg 92] kindergarten designs make pretty holders. If you have woven a holder, it will be finished when it is removed from the loom and the warp strings have been fastened. If you wish your holder to be very thick, weave two of these pieces, lay a square of felt or flannel between and sew or crochet the edges together. If the work is to be a mat, knot a pretty fringe all around it. ”

“ This helps the child to understand where the stripe should begin, which he soon learns to measure for himself; and this training in accuracy and independence is most excellent. There is nothing better than learning self-reliance, and the child who has been taught it, is not apt to ask others to do his examples for him. To learn the manner of making the stripes and spaces each of the same width, count the loops on the rods (one has to weave twice across the loom to have one loop on a rod) , and have the same number on each side. ”

“ Weaving is the art of interlacing threads, yarns, filaments, or strips of different material, so as to form a cloth or fabric. It is an ideal occupation, not only for little children, but for older ones as well, affording admirable opportunities for the development of head, hand, and heart. It trains both hands in deftness and proves a delight to the left-handed child, who for the joy of using his left hand again, will plod patiently across with the right. The fat little hands soon learn to grasp the large needle, and the nerves and muscles of both hand and arm are strengthened by daily use. ”

“ When the weaving is done and the mat lifted from the loom, the ends of the wool warp strings can be run in along the sides with a tape needle. If the warp be of twine, it is better to tie the end to the next warp string and allow the fringe to cover the knot; or, as in the case of silkoline, the woof strips can be caught over the warp strings with silk of the same color in order to hide them. Only experience can teach the tightness with which a warp should be strung. Worsted, carpet thread and twine will stretch as the work progresses, and raffia will not. ”

“ Make a stretcher for the head by covering a piece of rattan with buttonhole stitch. Fasten this to the hammock. A head-rest can also be woven and adjusted. To remove the hammock from the loom, cut the two rings apart, and then lift the warp strings from the grooves. A very pretty hammock can be made by stringing the warp of different colors, in order to make lengthwise stripes. Weave a neutral color through them. In this case, have a close warp. Pretty hammocks can be made by knotting instead of weaving. ”

“ Hold one circle over the other, and with a worsted or tape needle threaded with wool, wind over and over very closely until the hole in the center is completely filled. Always piece the wool on the outside edge. Cut the wool all around on the outside. Make a cord of the wool and slip between the two circles. Then tie so as to fasten all the pieces of wool in the middle, leaving the cord long enough to tie in a bow if desired. ”

“ If one prefers, a piece of burlap may be stretched across the loom and secured to the rods, instead of weaving a foundation, as suggested.
Stitches for pile weaving
Stitches for pile weaving
The first stitch
Stitches for pile weaving are very easily made. This illustration showing examples of stitches for pile weaving illustrates the methods used in the stitches, and may be used for Axminster or Wilton rugs, for boxes, sachet cases, and other articles. The tape [Pg 133] needle is the kind used for weaving when the large needle cannot be used. ”

“ Among the Pueblo Indians the men do the work; but women are the weavers among the Navajos. In the illustration on this page is seen a miniature Navajo loom with the blanket commenced. The two cords woven at the sides with the woof can be easily seen. Simple looms are suspended between two posts or trees, and the weaver sits upon the ground. A twig is used for a shuttle, and a reed, fork-shaped [Pg 136] like a hand, is used to push down the woof threads. The blanket is made waterproof by pounding down the threads with a batten, a good picture of which is seen in Dr. ”

“ A nineteen-year-old girl and a man in the forties, who had each but one normal hand, the other, instead of fingers, having only little prominences of skin without bones or muscles, thought they bent their absent fingers when they bent the deformed stump. Tickling these eminences, or binding a string about the fore-arm, caused the same sensations as in amputated persons, and a pressure on the ulnar nerve made the outer fingers tingle. ”

“ As I have said, I was next sent to the United States Army Hospital for Injuries and Diseases of the Nervous System. Before leaving Nashville, I had begun to suffer the most acute pain in my left hand, especially the little finger; and so perfect was the idea which was thus kept up of the real presence of these missing parts, that I found it hard at times to believe them absent. Often, at night, I would try with one lost hand to grope for the other. As, however, I had no pain in the right arm, the sense of the existence of that limb gradually disappeared, as did that of my legs also. ”

“ The bandages concealing them from view then fell off, and to my agonized sight were disclosed objects that struck me as strangely familiar. There is something about fingers, a marked individuality, I never forget. No two persons’ hands are alike. And in these fingers, in their excessive whiteness, round knuckles, and blue veins, I read a likeness whose prototype, struggle how I would, I could not recall. Gradually the hand moved upwards, and, reaching the throat, the fingers set to work at once to remove the wrappings. ”

“ It is possible that they are making mats or, perhaps, weaving (p. 132) .” He gives an illustration of the group taken from a photograph, but as it does not show the lines which indicate the loom lying horizontally on the ground nor the warp threads, I have asked him to let me have a drawing made of it and, with his kind permission, it is now reproduced here, Fig. 10. The threads of the warp and the finished piece of cloth at the breast beam end are clearly indicated. The whole model supports conclusively the well founded supposition that the loom we have been considering is a horizontal one. ”

“ The consequences are paralysis of the elbow extensors, the supinator longus, the supinator brevis, and the whole of the extensors of the wrist, thumb, and fingers; and loss of sensation over the cutaneous areas supplied by the nerve in the arm, forearm, and hand. For the patient the most striking symptoms are the flexion of the wrist and fingers, the loss of power to abduct the thumb, and especially the [75] enfeeblement of grasp due to the inability to fix the wrist during the action of the finger flexors. ”

“ If the attention of physiologists devoted to cerebral investigations is specially turned to the present aspect of research, cases of well-marked left-handed patients, or what is manifestly of even [Pg 211] greater significance, of exceptionally dexterous right-handed patients, in hospitals, asylums, and gaols, will from time to time present themselves. It has indeed been affirmed that left-handedness prevails among the “light-fingered” experts who find frequent lodging in our gaols. ”

“ A blow on our ulnar nerve behind the elbow is felt both there and in the fingers. Refrigeration of the elbow produces pain in the fingers. Electric currents passed through nerve-trunks, whether of cutaneous or of more special sensibility (such as the optic nerve) , give rise to sensations which are vaguely localized beyond the nerve-tracts traversed. Persons whose legs or arms have been amputated are, as is well known, apt to preserve an illusory feeling of the lost hand or foot being there. Even when they do not have this feeling constantly, it may be occasionally brought back. ”

“ The process by which it is done is slow, and intended to be merciful, as the skin of the hand is turned back, and the wrist then separated at the joint by a small knife, not injuring the bones of the fore- arm, and also allowing some flesh to form a flap. ”

“ Lest the hands should be recognized as belonging to the mediums, they are kept in a constant shaking motion while in view; and to make the hands look large or small, they spread or press together the fingers. With that peculiar rapid motion imparted to them, four hands in the aperture will appear to be half-a-dozen. A lady’s flesh colored kid glove, nicely stuffed with cotton, is sometimes exhibited as a female hand—a critical observation of it never being allowed. It does [78] not take the medium long to draw the knots close to their wrists again. ”

“ They show men who’ve been crucified with the torture of the ‘human glove.’ The victim gets crucified, nails through his elbows. The hands are treated with a solution which shrivels the skin. The skin is cut out with a razor, round the wrist, and peeled off, till it hangs by the finger nails—the ‘human glove.’ I’m not sparing you. ”

“ The candle, “our peculiar and household planet!” as Charles Lamb [Pg 136] designates it, has wellnigh become a thing of the past; but in the old days of candle-light the snuffers were among the most unmanageable of domestic implements to a left-handed man. They are so peculiarly adapted to the right hand that the impediment can only be overcome by the dexterous shift of inserting the left thumb and finger below instead of above. As to the right-handed adaptation of scissors, it is admitted by others, but I am unconscious of any difficulty that their alteration would remove. ”

“ The upper limbs, now relieved from having any share in the locomotion of the body, assumed great freedom in the various movements of flexion, pronation, and supination. The fingers became longer and could be opposed, singly or in groups, to the thumb so as to form a hook, a clasp or a pair of pincers; and the palm of the hand could be made into a cup-shaped hollow capable of grasping a sphere. In fact, the hand of man is the most perfect piece of mechanism Nature has yet produced. ”

“ A pallid or yellowish colour of the furrows marking the palm is indicative of disease.
Thumb.—The thumb deserves particular notice in treating of the hand. It is the presence of a thumb that imparts to the hand of the higher animals its character of superiority. It is the higher developement and greater mobility of the human hand that render it so much more perfect than that of the ape: “L’animal supérieur est dans la main, l’homme est dans la pouce,” says D’Arpentigny. ”

“ When, now, we pass from this light to very heavy work, it will be obvious that to hold a stone in the hollow of the hand, and to strike an object with it so that the reaction of the blow shall be mainly met by the muscular action of the back of the hand, and the thinnest section of the wrist, would be not only fatiguing, but might be injurious to the delicate network of muscles there found, and so damage this part of the hand. ”

“ If a person, after taking off everything that is fastened upon the body, his girdle, for instance, shoes, and even his ring, plucks one of them with two fingers of the left hand, the thumb, namely, and the fourth finger, and, after rubbing it gently round his eyes, puts it into his mouth and swallows3087 it without letting it touch his teeth, he will experience, it is said, no malady of the eyes throughout all the year. ”