Getting more warped

[altivo]

Facing a "blizzard warning" from the weather service for overnight tonight, followed by another "blizzard watch" on Wednesday, I am in doubt both about whether I'll be at work tomorrow and whether the workshop class will actually start on Wednesday. I could almost hope for the delay, because I'm behind on finishing up the warping.

At least it's all on the beam now. I still have to thread the heddles, which is the most tedious and detailed task. This time there are 336 separate threads to be properly threaded. I can put in two more hours tonight, unless I get too tired and start making mistakes. If the weather causes no delays, threading and sleying must be done by bed tomorrow night. If the library opens late or closes early tomorrow, I get some extra warping time.

Back to the bench for me.

Comments

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, how many pedals are you using with the pattern? If I remember right, 2 is for normal weaving and more for more specific patterns. I just don't remember too well, been such a long time since I last did any.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Typical looms have six treadles if there are four harnesses, or ten treadles if there are eight harnesses. Lots of other combinations exist, but those are by far the most common in the US and Canada at least.

The reason is that if you tie one harness to one treadle directly, you can weave most of the common twill patterns on a straight or point draw by pressing two treadles at once. The two extra treadles let you weave plain weave or tabby by tying one to all the even numbered harnesses and the other to all the odd numbered.

This particular loom, though, is a smaller portable loom (actually it takes two of us to move it, but...) and has no treadles at all. Instead it has hand levers on the top, one for each of the eight harnesses. A bit slower to use, but easier to move around. I have two large floor looms with treadles, but this portable is better for taking to class.

The design is a four harness overshot, so I'm using only four of the eight harnesses and four of the levers. On the floor loom, it would use six treadles, but on the portable loom you just lift the groups of harnesses at will, so you only need four individual levers.

Probably that's as clear as mud, eh? I will at least post photos of the finished work when it's done. Overshot weaving uses two shuttles, one with the same thread as the warp, and the other with a colored, usually slightly heavier, thread to make a pattern design that lies on top of the plain cloth. My background is a natural color cotton, and the pattern yarns are shades of purple, pink, and burgundy in raw silk.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Sounds nice to me. I remember using the 4 pedal thing at my parents. They have a decent size loom, but it is not in use at the moment. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Ah, OK. A four treadle loom is probably what we call a "direct tie up." In other words, there are four harnesses, and each one is connected to one of the treadles. Depending on whether the loom is a rising or sinking shed, stepping on a treadle causes the corresponding harness to go up (or down) and carry the threads that pass through its eyes with it. To raise (or lower) two harnesses at once, you step on two treadles at once. Eminently simple, but it does limit the patterns that can be woven to some extent.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Libraies can't close!

@.@

Thread at will mister.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh. And we didn't close this time, because there was no blizzard. The weather service missed their bet entirely. This always seems to happen when they get carried away and start sending out bulletins about "life threatening weather conditions." It just means no one will believe them when it's really true.

Threading is done. Only sleying and tie-on to be completed this evening.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Thread the heddles?

Hehe :) For some reason that amuses me. However it does sound like something not to try when tired. You'll end up in a pile of threads.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Actually you'd just end up with a mass of errors. The heddles are verticle bars with an eye in the center, rather than on the end like needles. The heddles move up and down to raise and lower warp threads before the weft is passed between them. Each warp thread passes through one heddle. Heddles are grouped in frames called harnesses such that all the heddles (and therefore the warp threads) in one harness are raised or lowered together.