Ashford Rigid Heddle Looms

Pick by the widest thing you actually want to weave, then add a little. Yarn draws in as you weave, so a 16 inch loom does not give you 16 inches of finished cloth.

16 inch suits scarves, towels and samples, and it is the easiest to store. 24 inch is the one most people land on, wide enough for a shawl or a baby blanket without becoming awkward. 32 inch handles throws and wider yardage. 48 inch is for blankets and full width fabric, and it is a serious piece of furniture at 14.3 lbs.

If you are torn between two sizes, the wider loom will still weave narrow cloth. The narrow one will never weave wide.

The loom, a 7.5 dpi nylon reed, two natural shuttles, the second heddle block kit, a threading hook, a warping peg and clamp, and a step by step instruction booklet.

Shuttle sizes are matched to the loom. The 16 inch ships with 14 inch shuttles, the 24 inch with 22 inch, the 32 inch with a 22 inch and a 30 inch, and the 48 inch with 30 inch shuttles.

You will need to add warp and weft yarn. A stand is separate.

No, stands are sold separately. The loom works fine on a table or in your lap, which is how a lot of people use it for the first year.

There are two options when you want one. The floor stand raises the loom to a comfortable working height and frees both hands. The table stand tilts the loom on a tabletop and takes up much less room. Both are adjustable and fit any of the four widths.

It lets you run two reeds at once, which opens up a lot more than plain weave. Double heddle weaving gets you denser cloth, finer setts, and pattern work like double width and some twill effects.

The useful part is that it is included by default on these looms rather than sold as an upgrade. When you are ready to try it, you only need to buy a second reed, not another part for the loom.

A 7.5 dpi nylon reed is included, which is a sensible middle ground and handles most worsted and DK weight yarns.

Six densities are available in total: 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and 15 dpi, listed metric as 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 per 10cm. Low numbers are for chunky yarn and open weaves, high numbers for fine yarn and closer cloth.

Reeds are width specific, so order the one that matches your loom.

Roughly 15.5 feet on the 16 inch, 22 feet on the 24 inch, 28.5 feet on the 32 inch, and 41.5 feet on the 48 inch.

Those are maximums with everything wound on neatly. In practice you lose some to loom waste at the start and finish, so plan a little short of the ceiling rather than right at it.

Yes. Every standard rigid heddle loom has holes drilled in the bottom rails for exactly this, so you can warp indirectly without owning a separate warping board.

You will need the Rigid Heddle Warping Peg set, which is sold separately and comes with 14 pegs so you can set a range of warp lengths. Indirect warping gives you better tension control, even warp lengths, and the option of warping from a single thread of one colour. It also saves a good deal of space.

Yes, it ships flat and you put it together. It is straightforward work with the illustrated booklet, and most people are done in well under an hour.

The loom is solid Silver Beech hardwood in a natural finish, so if you want to oil or wax it, do that during assembly while the parts are still separate and easy to reach.