Many thanks to Pat Tittizer for sharing her handy tip on making a loom for cluny leaves with the online tatting class.

The loom is made by making a v-shaped cut at the top point. If the star has a hanger, use that point as the top and remove the hanger. Cut 2 slits at the top and 2 slits on one arm. At the bottom (the pinch), cut 3 slits. The middle one splits the thicker spine between the arms of the star.

Full size diagram

Threading the loom

Hold the previous tatting element tightly in slot #1 under the loom. Then bring the loom thread up at 1, down at 2, up at 3, down at 4. Pull to curve the plastic enough to be able to slide the shuttle between the threads and the plastic. Continue by coming up at 5, down at 6, up at 7, down at 8. Finally, wrap several times at 9 & 10 to help hold the thread end in place.

Weaving a Cluny leaf

Hold the loom in your left hand. Use the shuttle in your right hand to do the weaving. On shuttles with points, I find it helpful to turn the shuttle backwards so that the point does not become caught in the loom threads.

Bring the weaving thread up at 1. Starting from the right side, go under the thread from 3-4, over the thread from 7-8, under the thread from 1-2, then turn around and go over 1-2, under 7-8 and over 3-4. This makes one pass.

The first pass must be tightened against the previous tatting. For a typical 12 pass leaf: passes 2-6 gradually become looser, then 7-9 stay the same width, and 10-12 gradually tighten back down to a point.

Shaping the leaf

Carefully remove the leaf from the loom. There will be a loop of thread at the bottom, and one at the top. The ending tails will also be at the top. Skip #1 on the photo. Second, pull the bottom loop downward, causing the top loop to recede into the leaf. Third, pull the loom/ball thread end (not the weaving thread) upward, causing the bottom loop to recede and shape the leaf.

Simple motif to try

Here is a simple flower pattern to try out your Cluny loom.