[warning: novel ahead, but bear with me if you might be interested in REALLY learning to weave so you could use the loom all on your own for personal projects]
So, we’ve been having weaving classes on the four-harness loom, Lulu, that’s on top of the fiber cabinet, and that’s the type of loom that most closely resembles a floor loom in the way it works. It also is conducive to a range of simple to very complex designs.
We’ve been doing shared warps, where I put on warps ahead of class, there’s usually a built in focus lesson that shifts a little with each one, and a person can sit down and weave without knowing much about the surrounding knowledge (calculations for project, how to warp, etc).
And that’s cool. That’s all some folks want, a taste of weaving, make a Thing, try something new. Fun had by all. 
But I feel like there are some folks out there that would like to know the whole tamale, the entire process. Enough they could wing it on their own to make personal projects.
I’ve done some bite-sized classes on different aspects, but it’s a disjointed way to teach weaving.
The thing is, weaving is a slow deliciously meticulous thing. Once you know what you’re doing, it still takes hours just to set up the loom to weave. It took me 5.5 hours to set up the scarves for the class tomorrow. And that was only 8" wide and worsted weight yarn, not finer thread. Add a few more hours for finer work. And teaching and explains can be slow.
But in addition to just exposing folks to trying something new and just for fun without all the thinky stuff…
My highest and best wish is that in addition to classes with shared warps for Taste of Weaving and Make a Thang…what I REALLY want is to teach folks to use it completely on their own if they wanted to.
You would still need to coordinate with Fiberarts (me) so that it’s available for scheduled classes, but there are certainly times that it’s sitting empty and a window of a couple of weeks would be great for you to get your project on and off.
The challenge has been the logistics of teaching a start to finish practical how-to-weave class so that someone could use it on their own. A decent whack of time involved. And then there’s coordinating things of how that would work to make a class or whatever. I still haven’t figured that out completely, so I’m thinking just one-on-ones might be the way to do it properly.
So what I’ve been rolling around…
Mentoring. Think of it as Weaving with Training Wheels. One-on-one hand-holding through a project. Then take wheels off and you can do the next on your own. I’m still on-call for scraped knees though.
So what I’m envisioning…
If someone is interested in truly learning the full process, we coordinate our time to meet at the space, and I show the next step. I’m guessing it’ll be a 6-8 hour commitment to learn how to do the calculations for a project, measure the warp chain, sley the reed, thread heddles, beam the warp. These can be broken down into these steps/sessions or can combine and do a couple together. For example, if I’m breaking things up when I’m warping, I tend to do the calculations and warp chain one session, then warp the loom (the other steps) the other session. That could be a couple or three evenings. Then however long it takes to weave things off.
In case you’re wondering, the loom warping can take many hours, which is why weavers usually put on enough for several items versus one. It takes very little more time to warp for 3-4 scarves as it does just one.
Some parts like planning is a full-participation on my part, but other parts, once I show you what to do and get you started, then I can go elsewhere and do my thing, then you come grab me when finished and ready for next step.
This setup would also be conducive to two or three people sharing their warp as long as coordinating for lessons doesn’t get complicated and folks agree on project.
I’m up at the space a lot on Tuesdays and Thursdays, evenings for 7-9 classes. I often come a few hours early or can stay late. Then random other days/evenings. I rarely do weekends unless something compelling. I can do weekdays pretty easily unless I find a job (looking, but being picky).
My point is, if those roughly work, and you think it’d be great to be able to use the loom all on your own, I want that for you too and am available to do a training-wheels mentoring thing on that first project to help you learn it.
Anyone interested?