22/03/2012

*Now* I know!

While surfing today, I came across this:


Just imagine... so that is why mine didn’t fly???

(Found in the Warp-and-weft publication, nov '54. Difficult link, but here it is: http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/warpweft.html (scroll down, waaaay down). I do know handweaving.net is supposed to be a mirror of the Arizona site, but I could not find this item by just searching...

Traditional warp tensioning systems

There has been a discussion on WeaveTech about warp advancing systems for Swedish looms, and now I have some pictures from "then" to "now".

When I learnt to weave, I went to a school with only "modern" looms – mostly Glimåkra, but also some Öxabäck. All had the now most ususal ratchet-and-pawl system for both warp and cloth beams. Several showed signs of the cord arrangement for releasing the warp beam, but the cords were all gone – "they never functioned well, anyway", said our teachers.

Grenander-Nyberg shows some old "pre-ratchet" arrangements, in the book Så vävde de (ISBN 91-36-00596-7):


When I bought my first loom, it had another system: it had a "crennelated crown" on the warp beam, and a long handle that was maneuvred from the weaving position. (I have long replaced that warp beam, so the picture is taken in the attic – beam only)


The handle, at the weaver’s end, rested in a, well, hook, I suppose:

(If you look closely, you can see the "loom-foot Stadig" under the loom. I love them!!!)

At the cloth beam, there is a ratchet, made from an old saw blade:


The system worked well, once I had adjusted to the fact that the shortest warp-advance was on the long-ish side. (Maybe it would have been better to have several hooks, as on the diagram above?)

Later, I wanted a double warp beam, and ordered "the whole caboodle" from Öxabäck. That included the back uprights, two warp beams and two back beams.


The old warp beam was mounted with an odd arrangement – it was sort-of hung up with two removable brackets on the back of the loom. Here is the inside of the frame:


The bench that came with the loom was ok – but one day I found this:



The seat is triangular, slightly concave and padded. The height is adjustable. And the best: it rocks!!! I can lean over a bit, and it leans with me. Unfortunately, it can’t be used with the AVL, as the foot rest is too low (or the stool has to sit too far back).

19/03/2012

More lattice scarves

Still the simplest of patterns, but now woven on a "real" loom (meaning the old CM ;-), and therefore threaded on 6 shafts, to get the shuttles to always come out on the correct side. I also changed the tieup to have a better "bottom" of the shed, for easier shuttling for wider warps. Tieup for sinking shed:


Even though I use the same yarn as always, I haven’t got the wet finishing "perfect" (meaning it fulls/felts a little different for each machine load). Maybe I should invest in a few more mesh bags?

Anyway: finished and properly pressed:




I meant to leave them in the Lammhult gallery, but they looked too much like "trellis on trellis", so they will be in my home shop/studio instead.

18/03/2012

Instant display... "thingie"

As I was invited to participate in a kind of co-op gallery that was to open yesterday (on the "designers saturday"...) – and as the gallery had next to nothing for displaying wares – and as the time was short – I had to invent something, and fast...

I went to my trusty near-by hardware store: "Emma, please – I have to invent something... NOW!" We found some plastic trellis. It was a) plastic (means there is no fear of splinters), b) collapsible (would easily go in the car) and c) available immediately!!!

I bought 3, took them home and tested. Seemed they would work.

Now they are in the gallery, forming a fairly stable triangular "cage":




I’m going to think more on this idea. White plastic is, well, white plastic – but, choosing a wooden thing would mean not only painting, but also lots of sanding

17/03/2012

Designers’ Saturday

used to be a fairly ambitious event. This year it was less so.

Or... perhaps the whole "in" crowd has moved to facebook?

Myself, I must be getting old... :



Now, this I could use:


Finally, a free-standing bookshelf!

Back home – the first water spout of today:

05/03/2012

Playtime is … playtime?

So: demo-day is over. Just off the loom:


Went home, twisted fringes, put in washing machine (in a mesh bag). Had problems decide which washing cycle to use: I wanted it to shringk/felt more than my ordinary differential shrinkage shawls, but not too much. Decided to do the same cycle, but suspecting I would have to do more.
This is what came out of the mesh bag:


Hmmm – it would (obviously) not need another cycle...


A deep breath and some coffee later, it looked more promising. This doesn’t really do it justice:


With a slightly tighter sett, it may even be for a small production "line"?

A better detail picture:


It shrunk about 30% in length and width - but it felted a lot more than (for instance) the "summer skies" in the last post.

03/03/2012

Oooops – I forgot!

Tomorrow is the "culture day" – how could I forget?

What to do? What to bring? And it is almost 4 already...

Fish out the old Göta – not my favourite, but in many ways easier to handle than the table loom.
Not many heddles – and not much time; so why not weave for an experiment...


but this time in wool-only, hoping for an interesting result


Unfolded Göta at the kitchen table, helpers in attendance:


A while later: weaving started, waiting for tomorrow


Watch this space!

02/03/2012

One neat trick – and a fly-shuttle mechanism

Starting with the "neat trick": over on Weavolution, Sally posted a trick to keep some order when weaving with several shuttles. Here it is – scroll down to the last picture.
As my warps often are wide enough to take several "idle" shuttles (and as I seldom bother about catching idle wefts... lazy, what more can I say?) , I seldom see idle shuttles as a problem.
But now – now I have the tail end of the honeycomb samples still on the loom (did I say lazy?) – and: the main reason for it still being there is that it is too narrow to handle the idle shuttles... So I adapted Sally’s idea (why didn’t I think of that, myself???) – here it is, not elegant, but functional:
(No, I don't use the fly-shuttle(s) for narrow warps; it doesn't work very well and is far more trouble than it is worth.)

(Then, on WeaveTech, we got this link to a short video, showing a very elegant and simple solution. Enjoy!)

There is also a discussion going on Weavolution on flying shuttles and mechanisms for "flying" them. I tried to photograph mine, but there isn’t enough space behind the loom to get it all in one picture. (And, yes, there is way too much in the background to make a "good picture" - .)
Mine is a side-pull, which means you flick the handle to the right to propel the shuttle to the right, and vice versa. (With the center-pull mechanism, pictured on the Weavo thread above, you flick the handle downwards to propel both pickers at the same time.)
So: here is the left-hand side of the loom:

The right side (couldn’t get high enough contrast, so the cords are sort-of-highlighted)

A detail from the right-hand side:
My loom* has an overhead beater – the top arrow points at the beater sword(?) – the bottom arrow points to the picker. There is no stop at the outside end of the box – the cord is short enough to stop the picker from falling out.

When I mount the double-box next time, I will take pictures of that, too.

* My loom is an AVL PDL - an older cousin to this one.