Many people who enjoy needlework of any kind are devastated if they get some sort of medical condition – whether it is arthritis, carpel tunnel syndrome or traumatic injury - that prevents them from gripping and manipulating needles.
I have been looking into this recently on discovering that a friend has just given up her favourite hobby in despair, having difficulties with holding her knitting needles.
There are many alternatives that spring to mind as a substitute. Two of the most popular are knitting looms and peg looms. I’ll deal with the knitting loom on another day, but now I would like to share some experiences I have had with a peg loom that may be of interest.
I cannot guarantee that if you have weakened hands, you will automatically be able to use a peg loom. All I can say, however, is that a peg loom uses different muscle groups, and does not involve a gripping action, as do sewing and knitting.
The picture shows me using a peg loom. It is very simple – there are no nasty complexities. You can choose how many pegs you use (and thus, the width of the completed item). You literally just weave your yarn in and out of the pegs, paying attention to maintaining even tension, and progress is surprisingly fast. I preferred to dangle the warp threads into a basket. This is a useful tip if you have curious cats, dogs – or toddlers – who are fascinated by the movement of the threads and may decide to grab and pull them.
I experimented with some herdwick wool; however, I was disappointed with the results, as the weave was loose and insubstantial. A thicker wool did not improve matters much. I therefore would recommend that anyone using a peg loom that the best substance to weave would be thin strips of fabric, much like those used in the making of rag rugs. The quality of the finished object will reflect the quality of the chosen materials, of course. People have used old tights or plastic bags for purpose of rug making, but if you can source some interesting or even luxury fabric, and choose your colours to coordinate well, this will look much better.
You can buy peg looms (with various numbers of peg-holes) from auction websites. A woodturner could make one for you, but the pegs need to be super-smooth in order to prevent snags or splinters.
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