There are several types of hand loom, with different methods and mechanisms for raising the shafts, either with your hands or your feet. Hand-operated looms can have as few as two shafts and as many as 24 or more. When using table looms, you use your hands to raise the shafts using levers or pulleys, as well as to insert the weft yarn. Some designers prefer this method as it allows time for refl ection and consideration of the design. With treadle looms, several pedals are used to raise, and in some cases lower, the shafts, leaving the hands free to deal with the weft threads. A dobby loom has only one pedal, with a peg plan being used to control which shafts are lifted.There are also different ways of making the warp, transferring it onto the loom and ‘dressing’ the loom. You will have been shown a particular system in preparing the loom. No set of instructions will be exactly the same, and each method works beautifully. Rather than confuse matters by giving alternating advice, this book will provide tips throughout each chapter that will be appropriate to all systems, and will hopefully help to solve the minor problems that can arise during the setting up of the loom.