Weaving is one of the oldest textile arts in the world. The most complicated looms, like the huge one featured in the movie Wanted, are the same in principle to the simple back looms used in the mountains of Peru for centuries. The idea is you use something to put the warp under tension. Shown above is my simple Cricket Loom, with the warp threaded and some of the weft worked.
The thing I find interesting about weaving is that it’s more complex, at least to my brain, than knitting. I have to make peace with winding on the warp, and with the mechanics of the loom itself. The process of actually weaving, meaning putting the shuttle back and forth, is relatively straightforward. But, as my weaving teacher Natalie Boyett of the Chicago Weaving School pointed out, half of weaving is winding on the warp. Accepting that, embracing it, helps one enjoy the process of weaving even more.