How to Set Up and Weave on a Union Home Loom

The Union Home Loom was marketed and sold to women who wanted to weave rugs as time permitted.  It is lightweight and can be carried from one room to another without taking it apart.  It is compact and takes up the same amount of room as a sewing machine.  The Union Looms advertisement brochure included many types of Union Looms, including the Union Home Loom.  

The Union Home Loom is unique as compared to rigid heddle, table and floor looms!  Think of it as a rigid heddle loom flipped vertically.

For example a rigid heddle loom normally lays horizontally on a table or stand and the rigid heddle is pulled forward to beat the fabric.

The Union Home Loom is kind of like the rigid heddle loom rotated vertically.

A volunteer at Historic White Pine Village recently donated a Union Home Loom to the Village.  She set it up and demonstrated weaving a placemat during the summer of 2023.  She had a manual that came with the loom.  I have copied the pages and have provided a link to the manual.  It explains in detail how to warp and weave on the loom.  

This is a photo of the Union Home Loom before dressing it. 

The heddle is stationary.   The top bar moves forward and backward to change the shed.

To dress the loom the bars in the back are used to hold the warp.

    

Thirty wraps around the bottom beam is equal to 10 yards of warp.

Once the warp has been wound around the bottom beam, the warp is then threaded through  the heddle.  The warp is tied to the nails on the top beam.

The woven placemat (in-progress).

In addition to learning about following a healthy lifestyle I am also interested in weaving.  I was planning to post a video on how to set up this antique loom on Youtube but unfortunately iMovie no longer works on my Mac.  I know how to use Blogger software so I decided to post a blog about it.   (I apologize if you found this post through HealthyNReal.  My next post will be about nutrition and health - I promise!)