My weaving studio is usually a place of solitude where I can slip into deep concentration. I am counting warpends; or I am paying close attention to synchronizing shuttle, treadles, and beater for greater efficiency and speed; or I am doing calculations to plan my next project. Or I am examining the cloth on the loom with a magnifying glass, counting picks per inch; or I am trying to wind a quill with just enough, but not too much, yarn. Without realizing it, I get absorbed in my thinking.
Old little brass bell hangs in the hallway on the way to the weaving studio.
When I am in this state of being immersed in weaving, I am easily startled by any innocent interruption. My husband has solved the problem of seeing me jump and hearing me gasp when he walks into my concentration bubble. He has hung a little brass bell a few steps outside the doorway to my weaving room. “Ring-a-ling-a-ling…,” the bell quietly announces, “It’s just me…” Now, with fewer incidents jolting me from solitude, I may live longer, as well.
I am dressing the big loom with linen. This flaxen thread brings a worthwhile challenge I find hard to resist. Beaming the warp was slow and deliberate. It pays to be attentive to everything at this stage. Threading for this dice weave could not be simpler; it was finished before I knew it. Now, it is time to sley the reed.
Bench, set at comfortable height for threading and sleying With my Glimåkra Standard, I get to put the bench “in” the loom. It’s like going into my own little playhouse.
Good lighting I use a small Ott Lite Task Lamp when natural light in the room is dim.
Reed is positioned right in front of the threadedheddles. Shafts and reed hang at optimum height for visibility and ease of hand mobility.Left hand index finger separates the end(s) to be sleyed.And the right hand holds the reed hook under the reed to pull the end(s) through the dent. (These two pictures show why a third hand would be nice. Normally, I sley the reed with two hands, so a third hand would be useful for taking a picture.)
Form two loops of Texsolv cord that hang down from the top of the loom, one on the right and one on the left, to hold the reed for sleying. My Texsolv loops hang from the countermarch frame.
Adjust the length of the Texsolv loops so that the reed will fall just below the eyes of the heddles.
Rest the reed horizontally in the Texsolv holders.
Use the tape measure to find the center of the reed. I mark the center of my reeds permanently by tying a small piece of 12/6 cotton seine twine at the center.
Find your weaving width measurement on the tape measure. Fold that measurement in half and place the folded tape measure at the center point on the reed, to the right, to find the starting dent for sleying the reed. Place one end of the tape measure in that starting-point dent to keep your place. Some people use the reed hook as a place holder, but when I pick up the reed hook to sley the first dent, I invariably loose my place.
Pull ends through the reed with the reed hook, referring to your draft for the correct number of ends per dent, starting at the dent on the right hand side that has the place holder in it. Good lighting helps to prevent errors. This is especially true with finer dents and darker threads.
After sleying each group of warp ends, visually examine the sleyed dents to look for missed dents or extra ends in dents.
Tie the sleyed group of ends into a slip knot.
Finish sleying all the ends; and smile, knowing you are a step closer to weaving fabric.
Draw-in happens. It is a natural part of weaving. Sending a weft thread across the warp, weaving over and under, naturally pulls the warp threads closer together–this is draw-in. But excessive draw-in ruins selvedges, causes warp ends to fray and/or break, and wastes time because it creates problems. The width across the fell line needs to be the same as the width of the warp in the reed. If the cloth is narrower at the fell line, there is abrasion on the outer warp ends from the reed, as the beater comes to the cloth.
Two things work together to help prevent excessive draw-in:
1) Angling the weft. Placing the weft across the warp at an angle adds extra length to the weft, which helps to accommodate for the natural draw-in.
2) Using a temple(stretcher). The purpose of a temple is to maintain consistency in the width of the cloth. It does this by “stretching” the cloth out, holding it in place with little spikes on each end of the tool. Moving the temple frequently uses the tool to its best advantage. I move mine about every inch of weaving. For more instruction on how to set a temple, please see one of my most popular posts, Tools Day: Temple Technique.
I weave with a temple more often than not. The temple must be set properly, to the precise width, so I have several sizes in my growing collection of temples. Sometimes it works to combine two different sizes to get the measurement that is needed.
My first temple was a make-do tool that I used with my rigid heddle loom on lightweight weaving. It is not adjustable, so it only works with one specific warp width.
Slat with clothes pins glued on the ends makes a simple lightweight temple for a rigid heddle loom.
My wooden temples are from Glimåkra. They serve me well, and are the ones I use most often. Since they are adjustable, they cover a wide range of possible widths.
Wooden temples (mine are Glimåkra) work well for any type of weaving.Switching parts on two different sizes of temples can increase the range of possible sizes. And, yes, some of my temples have an extra hole, added by my husband, to increase the range of the temples’ adjustability.Perfect width of temple for this cotton lace-weave scarf found with combination of two different sizes.Steve made an extension for my longest temple when I needed a really l-o-o-o-o-ng temple. He used finishing nails for the little spikes. It’s perfect!
The metal temples are heavier, with thicker teeth, and work well for coarser weaving, especially rugs.
Metal temples work well for weaving rugs. Like the wooden temples, these also have interchangeable parts, which can extend the range of possible widths.Temple is set in the scrap weft between rag rugs. Ready for the start of another rag rug!
May your selvedges shine, and your broken ends be few.
I am using graph paper and colored pencils again to design double-binding rag rugs. Twilldouble-binding rag rugs this time. The draft comes from Swedish Rag Rugs 35 New Designs, by Lillemor Johansson. The graph paper squares are great for playing out my own ideas. I am not aiming for specific color combinations with this exercise. And I don’t strictly follow my colored design when I weave, but instead use it as a guide that suggests a design pathway. This allows me to improvise at the loom as I see the cloth taking shape.
Graph paper for playing with design ideas, using Prismacolor pencils.Experiments with wide and thin blocks of color, unevenly spaced.Putting design experiments to the test. The twill structure gives more substance to the rug than plain weave, as well as adding to the textural appearance in the design.
I am upgrading my “baby loom” from four shafts to six shafts. My woodworker husband fashioned the new pieces for this 100 cm / 39″ Glimakra Ideal countermarch loom. Since I need to add new Texsolv cords to the two new pairs of shafts and accompanying horizontal jacks, I decided to replace the thirty-year-old cords that are on the original pieces at the same time.
Measuring, marking, and cutting Texsolv cord for new six-shaft shaft holders. Tools, from top to bottom: Cord threader, rotary cutter, black Sharpie, Thread Zapp II.
Tools:
Spool of Texsolv cord
Rotary cutter with sharp blade, and cutting mat; or, sharp scissors
Permanent marker
Cordless thread zapper (I got my Thread Zap II at Hobby Lobby)
Cord threader (Steve made mine; GlimakraUSA carries a similar one)
Upgrade to six shafts from four meant adding two pairs of shaft bars, two upper lamms, and two lower lamms, plus expanding the jacks at the top of the loom. New Texsolv cord was measured, marked, and cut the same for all six shafts. The cords seen on the lower shaft bars connect to the center hole in the upper (shorter) lamms when the loom is tied up.Viewed from above, the horizontal countermarch now has 8-shaft capability. Steve guessed I might eventually want a total of eight shafts, and decided to get the hard part out of the way now. The six jacks in use are connected via a long center Texsolv cord to the lower lamms below when the loom is tied up. The outer ends of the jacks in view have cords that connect to the top shaft bars. Countermarch is a nifty mechanism. Simple, really.
Texsolv Tips:
Measure length of Texsolv cord. “Measure twice; cut once.”
Cut with very sharp blade on the “line” between holes. A sharp blade reduces the cord’s tendency to fray apart when cut.
Use thread zapper tool to melt the cut ends. Roll melted end between fingers to form a firm tip at the cut end.
Especially for countermarch looms: This one tip greatly simplifies countermarch loom tie-ups because it eliminates guessing about getting everything even. Use permanent marker to make consistent marks on like cords, to enable even tie-ups; e.g., with the marker, put a mark on the second hole from the top, and on four holes (alternate with unmarked holes) near the bottom end of shaft-to-lamm cord, so that when you attach shafts to lamms, all the cords can be precisely aligned. (All my cords are measured and marked. I keep one of each marked cord in a labeled Baggie as a sample to make it easy to replace or add any cord.)
Use threader, if needed, to thread cord through holes in the loom parts.
