Learning to Weave with the Bucilla Weaving Loom

I love trying new-to-me crafts, so I was excited that my BORC from Plaid contained the Bucilla Weaving Loom (affiliate link here and throughout the post). Weaving isn't new to me in the sense that I've done paper weaving and basic yarn weaving, but I'd never done anything besides the plain over-under stitch and I'd never completed an actual woven yarn project. 

The Bucilla Weaving Loom came with everything I needed except the yarn. I chose to use Premier's Sweet Roll Yarn (Gelato Pop and Mint Swirl, which is apparently discontinued). The loom instructions have text and pictures for the Plain Stitch (already knew that one!), the Soumak Stitch, the Looped Stitch, and the Rya Knot. Here are my first few rows. 

The rows worked up quickly and the comb helped keep everything nice and straight. 

Everything stayed nice and straight until it came time to take my project off the loom. In the process of tying off the bottom warp yarn, I messed up the tension a bit. I tried to fix it as I tied off the top warp yarns....

... but the finished piece ended up a bit off-kilter. I also noticed that I cut the fringe a bit unevenly. No matter. I'm happy with it and am confident that each future attempt will be better and better. 

I learned a lot during this first project and thoroughly enjoyed the process. How about you? Have you tried weaving? Any tips or tricks for keeping things straight once you remove your work from the loom?