Another 15 000 kilograms

Same threading, same warp (same sleying mistakes), but different weft and slightly different treadling:

The stem should have been longer, but it is now fatter and the foot is thicker.
(Perhaps I should explain: the stripeyness(sp?) comes from the warp - two blue tones, one of them shows as grey, here.)

The shape could be altered some: (this also has the longer stem)
Not woven because the warp/thrums had got too short...

Opinions?
Would any of you buy a special towel for drying your crystal?

Sampling

This is a sample, woven on thrums from another project.

The sample is a cousin of the leaf scarves (in fact, it is the same threading).
This time I am thinking of towels for hand-drying crystal glasses (I do live in the "kingdom of crystal", after all ;-).
A glass towel should be very thin and flexible, and lint-free - this spells linen, to me, even though the sample has cotton warp.

However, I don't have more than 16 shafts - I can't make the "picture" wider.

Front and back - click to see it in real life-size.

This picture is larger-than-life:

What I can do is making the stem wider and the foot thicker.
I can also make the bowl taller - perhaps I could try for a tulip-shape?

This is not exactly the liftplan I used (sneaker net is down at the moment, due to heavy rain...)

Yesterday I also did something I've been thinking of for a long time (10 years?): I piled books onto the AVL treadle to lift 8 shafts. It took approximately 16 kilograms of encyclopedia for that to happen.
The sample above took 790 picks for ca 55 cm wet-finished cloth. That equals 12640 kilos (or 12 and-a-half tons, if you prefer).
Weaving on an AVL is not for the faint of right leg... but I already knew that. I just did not know exactly how much the lifting amounts to. No wonder there's a joke about AVL weavers and right leg development...
Question: can anybody think of a way to measure the force needed for the flying of shuttles? I haven't used the double box for a while, but I remember what happens every time I go back to the single box: I make the shuttle bounce almost half the way back...
Maybe I should tell my loom is 60".

Another solution / en annan lösning

Laura's soultion is the right-hand one (right, Laura?) - slightly different look, but sooo much easier...
(why didn't *I* think of that??? ;-)

En annan lösning, från Laura (till höger ovan). Lite annorlunda ser den ut, men bara lite ;-)
(Varför kom inte *jag* på den...?)

Att "fånga" staden

Men, säger någon, kan man inte fixa till de lösa trådarna på nåt sätt?

Jo, alltså - man kan ju andvända två skyttlar.
Eller (som Anne föreslog borta hos Anki - man kan ta av tråden i varje vändning, för att börja om från andra sidan.
Eller (som Annes syfröken föreslog), man kan sy till kanterna för hand efteråt.

I Amerika är det populät med en annan metod: "flytande stad" (floating selvage). Det innebär att man låter den yttersta tråden vara osolvad, och istället tricksar med skytteln så att varje inslag går "in över, ut under". (Tvärtom går förstås också bra.)
Det fungerar förstås, men är så pyssligt att ingen (jag menar mig själv, förstås) orkar hålla på med det i metervis...

Om man har 6 skaft kan man solva de yttersta trådarna på de extra skaften:

Man skulle ju kunna solva fler trådar i tuskaft - eller kan man det?
Jag vill påstå att det inte är lämpligt, eftersom tuskaft är en tätare bunden väv. Det betyder att tuskaftskanterna lätt "bygger" mer än kyperten, man får spänningsproblem osv.


So, how to catch the edge?

Well, as we have seen, one can use two shuttles.
Or (as Anne wrote over at Anki's - cut the weft at every change of direction, start anew from the other side.
Or (as Anne's sewing teacher suggested) - one can hand sew over each un-caught portion of the ... yardage... afterwards.

In the US it is popular to use a "floating selvage", which means that the outer threads are left unthreaded, and instead manipulate them for each shuttle pass: "in over, out under". (The opposite will work too, of course.)
That is way too fiddly for me.

If you have 6 shafts you can use the two extra shafts for the edge threads.

But - then you can thread a wider selvage, can't you?
IMO that is not a good idea. As tabby is a tighter weave than is twill, it is easy to get a too "long" selvage - it will build faster. You can also get tension problems.

Kypert och lösa stadtrådar, del 2

Blir dethär bättre?

(Klicka för större bild!)

Om vi räknar inslagen nedifrån:
det första kommer från vänster; kommer ut ÖVER stadtråden.
Sedan går det från höger, och det går in ÖVER stadråden (ut resp in orangemarkerade).
Stadtråden blir inte bunden.

Tredje inslaget kommer från vänster, och kommer ut UNDER stadtråden.
Fjärde inslaget går från höger, går in UNDER stadtråden (andra orangea pilen).
Stadtråden blir inte bunden - nu ligger den fri för 4 inslag.

Femte inslaget (från vänster), kommer ut ÖVER staden.
Sjätte från höger, går in ÖVER stadtråden, som nu ligger fri över 6 inslag.

Sjunde inslaget (efter trampvändningen; fjärde krok-pilen) från vänster: ut ÖVER staden.
Åttonde från höger går nu in UNDER staden - staden binds.

Nionde från vänster; ut UNDER staden.
Tionde från höger: in ÖVER staden, som binds.


A more detailed description of how to understand yesterday's picture.

The wefts are (in the Swedish tradition) counted fron the bottom - in fact, as they are entered on the physical loom... :-)

The first pic is coming fron the left, comes out OVER the edge thread.
Second pic goes from the right, and enters the shed OVER the edge thread (both picks marked in orage)
The edge thread is not caught by the weft.

Third pick from left, exits shed UNDER the edge thread.
Fourth pick enters shed from the right, UNDER edge thread.
Edge thread is not caught, and is therefore free for 4 picks.

Fifth pick comes from left, exits OVER edge.
Sixth pick from right, enters OVER edge. Now the edge thread is un-caught for 6 picks.

Seventh pick (after the change of treadling direction, 4th crooked arrow) from left: comes out OVER the edge thread.
Eighth pic now enters shed from right, UNDER edge thread, which is thereby caught.

Ninth, from left: out UNDER edge.
Tenth, from right: in OVER edge, which is again caught.

Kypert och lösa stadtrådar

Till Anki:
såhär kan man (relativt) enkelt ta reda på om/hur stadtråden fungerar med en skyttel (de orangea pilarna), eller med två skyttlar (de röda och gröna pilarna).
(Klicka på bilden, så blir den större)

Alltså - med en skyttel går det bra OM man tar av tråden och börjar från andra sidan i tramp-vändningen.

Med två skyttlar fungerar båda trampriktningarna utan problem (utom att man måste hålla rätt på skyttlarna, förståss...)

This is esentially a comment to Anki.

This is one method of figuring out if/how a twill selvage will work out.
The orange arrows are for one shuttle - there will be a warp loop for half the goose eye unless you cut the weft and start from the other side at the change of treadling direction.
OR you can use two shuttles (the red and green arrows) - with two shuttles the edge threads will be caught (nearly) always.
(Click the picture to make it bigger).

How to fly carpets

I have been asked how the flying carpets (now taken down) were mounted to fly.

I had a theory:

The idea was: route the rug as shown, between two rigid sticks. Put a "string" with a stopping knot under the lower stick, through the hole in the upper, and down the other end.
Hopefully the weight of the rug would press the upper stick down on to the lower stick, and lock the rug in place.

It did not work. So... plan B: put a screw through the holes, and a wingnut under the lower stick. (The rug is still routed the same way.)

This worked perfectly!
For "sticks" we used shaft bars (as they already have convenient holes...), and put a big washer on each "outside" to protect the wood from marks.
The only annoyance was that the hardware store did not have shorter "eyed" screws...

(I still think the theory could work with, say, shawls)