I made a new backstrap loom today. I found and sanded all the wood with 220 grit sandpaper, oiled it all with funature oil (some kind of lemon oil) .
I wanted a backstrap, but braiding all the ends of the fringes seemed too "fiddlly" to me. looking at pictures online, I noticed that some of the backstraps used in the orient seemed to have a stick with a center rope to attach to the beams rather than a cord run through a set of loops.
I found some 'paint rod extenders' with screw tips at a store called "big lots" that sells odd lots and close out merchandise. They looked perfect for narrow backstrap warps. I had a 1" dimeter dowel standing in the corner, slightly warped from standing on end. I cut the 48" down to two 22" lengths and drilled 1/4" holes 1/2" from each end. I drilled holes in all my wood peices 1/2" from the end so I could easliy tie things down if I wanted too. It took me about 2 hours to do the sanding/hole drilling.
I set up the 2 small 6" dowel pieces by attaching a tie to the center. Then I tied scrap yarn to the ends of the 6" dowel and taped the yarn down to the table so that the dowel peices were 24" apart, but could flop up and down. I taped the center of my rope down to the table and proceded to tie the warps to the dowel peices with larks head knots or half hitches as if I were attaching heddles. When I was done putting the warps in; I took the free ends and wove them back to the middle with plain weave. I finished by crossing the ends and hidding them in the weave.
The macrame yarn that I used I found at a yard sale.It is about 3 ends per inch or about 1/4" diameter. It is streachy and scratchy to handle. 100 feet of cotton clothes line could also be used.
it took me about 3 hours to do the fingerweaving. (3 disks of my book on tape) I did set up string heddles to make changeing sheds eaiser as I wove from the ends to the middle. For the last few picks, I just shoved the knot inbetween the wefts.
Overall the efective width on the long beam is 20" and the short beams is 11"