ikea cart – Warped for Good

Quiet Friday: Countermarch Back Savers

October 28, 2016October 27, 2016 Karen

After back surgery, I wondered how-in-the-world I would be able to tie up my countermarch looms. After a four-week ban on bending over, I was eager to weave, but not eager to do anything that might strain or injure my back.

Two simple maneuvers made it possible for me to tie up the lamms and the treadles on both of my Glimäkra countermarch looms:

Remove the lamms. Treadle cords are added while sitting in a comfortable position.
Detach the treadles. Bring treadles closer to the front of the loom for attaching treadle cords.

And two important practices kept me from over-reaching and overdoing it:

Sit on a low stool instead of the back of the loom or the floor.
Take frequent breaks to stand up, stretch, and walk around.

Tools:

Low stool for sitting
Rolling cart (IKEA cart) or small table
Plank of wood, longer than the loom is wide (one plank of warping trapeze, 1″ x 5″)
Treadle cords, Texsolv pins, other tie-up supplies
Length of cord to hold treadle up (Texsolv cord that’s used for hanging the reed for sleying)

The 120 cm (47″) Standard loom has open space in the loom, making it easy to get within arm’s reach of most things; but the challenge increases with the number of shafts–eight for this tie up.

Alpaca warp, ready for countermarch tie-up without back strain. — Beamed, threaded, sleyed, tied on. Waiting for the final step of tying up lamms and treadles.

Lamms are removed, 2 at a time, and placed on the cart to add the treadle cords, all the while sitting on a comfortable stool.

After all 8 lower lamms have the treadle cords added, the lamms are reinserted in the loom, 2 at a time.

Treadle rod is removed to detach the treadles. Wood plank keeps the treadles from sliding back while treadle cords are attached at the front of the loom.

Cord acts as a sling to hold the treadle up to a comfortable height.

The raised treadle helps with visibility, and enables the use of both hands, especially helpful for the “Vavstuga method” of tying up treadles with knitting needles (I use sharpened dowels). After treadles are tied up, re-attach the treadles at the back of the loom.

The 100 cm (39″) Ideal loom requires more reaching. Tying lamms to the shafts is a challenge for short arms, like mine. With four shafts, and only three treadles for this tie up, the rest of the process isn’t difficult.

Threaded for striped towels. Glimakra Ideal. — Threaded for striped towels. Glimäkra Ideal has smaller spaces in which to work than in the Standard loom.

Upper lamms are placed on the cart. I hold the weaving draft in my lap as I add the treadle cords to the lamms.

Lower lamms are removed as the pin is pulled out. After the treadle cords are added, the lamms are reinserted.

Detached treadles lay on the floor. They easily pivot up at the front of the loom for attaching treadle cords.

Everything is tied up and ready to weave!

May you stay healthy to live long and weave.

Happy Weaving,
Karen

Tools Day: Loom Cart

April 12, 2016April 11, 2016 Karen

Having a cart beside my loom is the next best thing to a loom-side assistant! A turquoise utility cart from IKEA sits beside my Glimåkra Ideal. An Elfa drawer system on casters is right beside the Glimåkra Standard, and keeps oft-used tools within arm’s reach.

The IKEA cart (Råskog Utility Cart) serves as a holding space for any project on the Ideal. Since this loom is not in the room where I keep my weaving supplies, it helps to have a rolling cart that holds items as needed. The three tiers hold tools and supplies for dressing the loom, like sley hook, extra Texsolv heddles, and treadle cords. While weaving, I keep extra shuttles and small tools on the top tier. All the weft thread or yarn for the project goes on the second or third tier. When I weave rag rugs, fabric strips that are sorted by design and/or color are piled up on the three tiers.

IKEA utility cart as loom-side assistant. — IKEA utility cart holds thread and wound quills while I try out weft colors on a new warp.

The Elfa cart enhances efficiency at the big loom. It houses frequently-used essentials, especially small tools and supplies needed to dress the loom. It is near my work table where I wind quills, so yarn for the current project goes in the deep bottom drawer. The woodblock top adds a nice touch that compliments the wood of my Swedish loom.

Elfa drawer system with casters for loom-side assistant. — Too many leftover quills from projects sit in the top drawer of the loom cart. Sley hooks, flat head pins, headlamp, pencils, tape, and other small tools and gadgets are in this top drawer.

Elfa drawer system as loom cart. Organized! — Second drawer has anchor pins and arrow pegs for Texsolv cord, box of choke ties, box of long treadle cords, box of short treadle cords. I found the little boxes at IKEA.

Loom room organization. Guide strings wrapped on empty tubes. — Guide strings for measuring warp are wrapped on empty thread tubes. This drawer also holds rolls of twill ribbon used for measuring weaving length at the loom.

Organization at the loom. Elfa cart solution. — Yarn in the bottom drawer is only a half step away from the winding station. All the cotton and wool weft for the current project is in this drawer, making it easy to grab what I need for winding more quills.

May your loom-side assistant serve you well.

Happy Weaving,
Karen

Quiet Friday: Checkered Rug

May 22, 2015May 21, 2015 Karen

I have another rag rug warp on my Baby loom (Glimåkra 100cm Ideal), playing with the magic of double binding again, this time with four shafts and four treadles. Ten yards / nine meters of warp. I planned an additional twelve inches / 30.5cm between rugs for cutting off and tying back on, so I can cut each rug off as it is finished. Here is the first rug.

Winding warp for another rag rug. — Small warping reel is used to measure the ten yards / nine meters of 12/6 cotton rug warp.

Beaming the warp under tension, using warping trapeze and weights. — Warp chains are undone and lengthened out over the warping trapeze. Several pounds of walking weights hold the bouts under constant even tension for beaming the warp.

Tying on. — All tied on. Ready to weave.

Designing a rag rug. — Design concept is created; and fabric colors are chosen.

Double binding rag rug on the loom. Karen Isenhower — Progress.

Using a temple for weaving rag rugs. — Temple is always in place when I am weaving a rug. I fitted two different temple parts together to get this warp width. Notice the lengthwise gaps between the temple parts…but not a problem.

Rag rug on the loom. Nearing completion. — Around the breast beam, and over the knee beam, to wrap around the cloth beam. Warping slats are placed between the cloth beam and the rug the first time around to make a smooth surface for the woven rug-cloth.

Rag rug on the loom. Woven hem. — Hem is completed with 12 picks of rug warp. Three inches of scrap fabric header comes next, and then the rug is ready to be cut from the loom.

Hand-hemming rag rug. — Warp ends have been knotted and trimmed; and hem folded under and pressed. Now, hemming with a needle and rug warp, the last step is almost complete. The only thing left is to sew on my label.

Checkered rag rug. Karen Isenhower — Notice the subtle changes in color and depth of color where the warp colors change–purposely not aligned with the block changes.

Home sweet home. That's what rag rugs are for. — Home sweet home. A patterned rag rug makes a house feel like home.

May you finish what you started.

Happy Weaving,
Karen