The first snowdrop, the first daffodil and a mystery solved

The first snowdrop is outside the front porch:

On my other blog I have a label for the first snowdrop. I haven't had that label for more than 4 years, but it sure seems as if they start earlier and earlier...


"The first daffodil" (which may come to be the title of what is on the loom):

(but I plan to have one complete with petals a little higher up)


And the mystery:
I have noticed that hand-throwing shuttles on the AVL makes me tired much faster than on weaving on the old CM.
Today it dawned on me: the shuttle race is in the way!
On the CM I can hold the beater away with the thumb of the catch-hand, and put the hand with the palm under the shed opening. This way the shuttle flows right into the hand - but with a shuttle race, I have to catch the shuttle as it comes along the "shelf".
Also, the AVL beater is heavier than the other, so the thumb has to stay in its "holding-away" position a tad longer. So to catch the shuttle, I have to do the actual catch with the fore-finger on top, which in the next instant means I have to shift the grip on the shuttle to be able to throw it into the next shed...

(I tried to get a pic of this, but would have needed an extra hand for the camera)

A few AVL-tips

So many tips-and-tricks are obvious, once you’ve heard them... here are some of mine.

From the ground up; front to back:

Those irritating metal bars that protect the treadle pulleys, where the apron bar (and sometimes the cloth) so often catches:

now covered with a piece of cardboard – no more catching:

(I used a piece of paper for years, but when it tore it got replaced with cardboard)

The beater top that goes with the double fly-box used to be attached to the boxes. As I quite often change between single and double box, I had problems every time I wanted to change: how to handle a 60” beater top with a heavy lump at each end?
The answer (unfortunately out of focus):

My shafts are numbered. (Thank you, Laura – when you told me, I was still so much in countermarch mode. On the CM I constantly take the shafts off and on – no way I would number them) Numbering them "the American way" also helps if I print out a threading using numbers.

Next, I have a permanently installed holder for the brake weight:

Then, following the ground-up-rule of above, there is the “grenade pin” on the cloth storage roller – it has got a hole for storage when not in use. (OK, it is nearly always in use, but once it fell into a box full of yarn – that never happens anymore.)

(The number comes from the time I was disassembling the loom to take it to a show. Nearly all older Swedish looms are permanently marked some way or another.)

At the back, first comes the numbered sectional. It is numbered two ways: from the middle outwards and from left to right.

Lastly, I have taken the top off of the tension box "raddle". (Laura has a much more sophisticated system here – I just use painter’s tape if needed.)

The pivoting reed still has it’s top – I would like to take it off, but the tines get unstable and I don’t think it would survive for long without the stabilisation.

Still no luck on the picker return front. The buttonhole elastic now has survived about 10000 picks each without sagging, and I have a whole roll of it...

What time can do

Other than gallivanting around, I have done some weaving, too!

I planned this double-layer scarf, and decided it would do well on the AVL. As it is so much more work to weave with the double-box, I usually change to the single-box when I don't need two shuttles.
The double-box attachment had been sitting in a dark corner for several months, but now I took it out and mounted it. And found... the rubber picker-returns were completely unusable, both of them. Only time had eaten them - they were relatively new when I last used them. And I had only one spare spring.
Obviously, it was time to do some radical thinking (and also find a fast fix). While still thinking about possible "final solutions", here is my fast fix:

Yes, buttonhole elastic and a pin.
It works quite well, especially when I had devised a "deflector shield" to ensure that the shuttle could not be trapped under the picker.

But I am still pondering a final solution... or at least a solution with springs that will only deteriorate with actual usage. I'll keep you posted.

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.

Auto-what?

Today I had problems with the auto-advance ("new style") of the AVL.
I had woven a little more than 50 cm, with (almost) no hint of a problem.
It looked like this (all pics get bigger if clicked):

As you can see, there is the occasional streak, but I'm sure that can be blamed on me. (I have found that it is important to keep the rythm, or slight irregularities easily happen.)

Anyway, I was weaving on, and on, and on... when suddenly, this happened:

I tried to remedy it the first times it happened, to no avail. Irregularities continued - the auto-advance really advanced, and advanced...

Something had to be done (and the scarf was ruined anyway). So I put a brown marking thread, and lowered the a-a arm some.
And then some more, and some more... Almost no change between adjustments to the arm.

What to do? Knowing it would be too much, but being almost desperate to "get a reaction", I put the arm at the very lowest point.
Wove on for almost 15 cm, when (again) suddenly I was getting almost double the pick count.
(I did not change anything at all between the two horizontal marks below)

Now I had to get the pick count lower, again... Again several tries:

After almost 50 cm fiddling around I had got the pick count back to where it was to begin with.

I started with approx 7 picks per cm, at the worst point I had about 3, came up to 12 and then back to nearly 7 (did not manage to get it below 7,3 - average over 10 cm).

What, why?!?

- I have never been able to understand why I can have the a-a give me (say) 10 picks per cm when weaving a cotton warp, put on another cotton warp (same grist, different colour) and have to adjust it to get 10 picks per cm.
I can accept (but not quite understand) that I will have to adjust it if I out on a wool warp - different materials have different properties - but, after all, the auto-advance device is purely mechanical?

sometimes I wish...

...that the AVL was not quite as, er, "sturdy".
The Other Loom has perhaps 4 bolts, and they have to be taken out on only one occasion - when it is to be completely dissasembled.
I have woven on this loom for close to 30 years now, and have never had a problem with the reed falling out, for example. The breast and knee beams lift out easily, the beater lifts off... and no tools required. But it hasn't got a fly shuttle...

Today I shifted from the double fly shuttle box to the single - at least 6 bolts to take out, plus several other small screws and things that require tools. Then, of course, the bolts and screws have to go back in.
The beater top has two bolts, and to change the reed there are many more (9? 10?). To be able to thread at a reasonable rate, the breast beam had to come out - more bolts.

Don't get me wrong. Once "done", the AVL does nearly everything I ask of it - and with the fly shuttle and the auto-advance she is fast, too.

As I could not (easily) adapt this pattern to full inches, I spread the warp with empty sections between the stripes. By mistake, I started sleying "straight", which means the left side of the warp is about one inch wider on the beam. Had I started the sleying just half an inch to the left... but I decided it will not be a problem. Time will tell...

After having got the auto-advance set and the pattern/threading checked, I stopped for the day.

(no, I will use a somewhat less orange yarn tomorrow)

(I've better confess: it helps to have a club when taking out/putting in the wedges of The Other Loom. But a clog will do, in a pinch)

Loom waste?

The shortest thrums yet?

Granted, the sheds were not the greatest for the last inch or so... but it worked!

(Once I had a student who happened to miss one turn for one section. As luck had it, that section was threaded on the front shafts. She managed to weave well until that section was halfway through the shafts...)