Dressing Up Maeve

So this is part 2 of my new loom adventure.   It's about dressing up Maeve with her first warp. This is 10/2 cotton, kinda clingy and in softer 'neutral' colours.   Approx 7.5 yards for 6 towels and a sample.   At 28 epi, that's 684 ends!   Nice project in principle but that 684 times I must tussle with new heddles that are somewhat tangled.  Well, I'm that patient.... or stubborn, take your pick!

The warp wound on very well using the Helping Hands assist. (from Lofty Fibers)   The only issue I had was the holes in the ends of my new lease sticks is larger than the ones on the older 110's lease sticks.  So the little 3D printed pegs fell out!    So I used some painters tape at either end and carried on.    No binding of threads, no breakage despite the threads being clingy.   

  

Each section of warp had an S hook and a 3 pound weight and I would go back and forth advancing every 2 feet or so.    Not overly fast but it went well and that's the main thing.  I try not to rush any phase of this process as the beaming of the warp is important.   You can't weave properly on a badly beamed warp.

Finally, I was done and this was my view from the front. The beater assembly is lifted up onto support brackets from GingerlocksHandwovens.  They have a variety of 3D printed aids for looms. 

Here you can see the lease sticks and their end brackets have been dropped down to the lower position, at a good height for threading. There is texsolv cord on either side so you can adjust it to exactly where you need them. I generally as a rule leave the main Helping Hands parts on the loom. The lead stick brackets go into the nifty little bag they came with.

Then this was my view for a few hours every afternoon as I grappled with fresh tight heddles. It was very hot outside so I was okay with the AC on and some nice music playing. 

My high tech method of keeping track of where I am in the pattern.  I'm threading what is between the 2 post it notes.   Simple and effective.   Cheap too.

The threaded sections started to add up....

.... and finally it was all done!  Time to set the parts back on the loom for sleying the reed.

Except the 14 dent reed I need is being used on the other loom! So time to get busy over there.....

Back soon.   😉

A Second Helping: Megado Version

This post is also about Helping Hands, but this time for the Louet Megado loom, and again, the post will be in two, possibly three parts.  1.) the Helping Hands set up and use.  2.)  Point twill drafts used and the various tweaks, and 3.) show and tell of the finished towels.     There may be other posts in between as I work through projects on my Spring. 

Click on the picture to enlarge.

This is an 8 yard (possibly closer to 9 yards) warp. I seem to have lost my notes right now.  Its 8/2 cotton in natural and I bought it from a Quebec based yarn store at Etsy, which appears to be dormant now.  It was a nice chunky 3 pound cone of 8/2 ring spun cotton. It appears to be a bit over twisted and so wants to curl up if not under tension. Consequently, it was a bit of a bear to beam but with my husband's help we fought through it.   Now that it's in place and being woven up, I have to say that its lovely and  it was worth the battle.   It does produce extra lint though.

I have attached the Helping Hands to the top of the Megado castle and it's important to use the little "T" widgets in the raddle slot to keep the parts in place and not sliding off and away.  It would seem my raddle is a tad bit long so I had to be careful where I placed them. The loom is a 2001 model and so not the same size as the more modern versions. This caused issues later as you will read.

After setting the warp up on the lease sticks I attached a metal rod through the bottom loops of the warp and drew it downwards to the apron rod. Then you use circular loops of texsolv with straight pegs to close them, and hold the two rods equal distance apart of 1-2 inches.  I have extra texsolv cord and pegs from a past loom so I could make up more up for a wider warp.   Then you lace the metal rod to the apron rod.  Note the security cord around the raddle to keep the threads in place there. 

Another similar view...

Then, here's the view from the front, where I have weights hanging to keep threads  behaving. 

Beaming is under way and I always like this part and the smoothness of the threads.  Hubby assisted me and we took our time as the threads wanted to 'halo' and hold hands, snarl and tangle a bit due to over twist and generally be cranky.   We got through it all with no broken threads which is a miracle!

Then it was time to move the lease sticks and snap the end brackets into the lower parts for threading and that's when I discovered an issue....

It would appear my 2001 model lease sticks are a bit long, but not by much! I was unable to place the pegs into the holes and so had to improvise with some painters tape to hold them.  Hub is going to take off about a 1/4 inch to the end of the original holes, smooth, and then drill new holes.  We're going to try one end of both sticks for now and see how the next warp beaming goes.   There was some flexibility in the parts near the raddle above but not in the lower portion.

Now, these two green 3D printed brackets are from Gingerlocks Handwovens and came too late to use when I tried their 3D brackets to beam the last warp. They attach to the front of the castle and you use them to support the beater  and hold it up out of your way for threading!  *check Gingerlocks out as they have other nifty  Megado tools as well*

As you can see from the of pictures below, it works quite nicely and I'm happy with them.  I don't have the room to physically swing the beater up and out of the loom and then fight to get it back in place. This is so much simpler.     The Helping Hands bracket holds the lease sticks at just the right height ( and there are adjustable texsolv cords to allow for some movement up or down)

The threading is a 16 shaft point twill. So a series of runs up and down, over and over again.   I still mark my progress on a threading guide and shift my mini post it notes and  slip knot each grouping. Its a slow process as the shafts are set close together, and I always live in hope that if I'm methodical enough in my approach and do a quick double check as I go, I won't have any threading errors later to deal with. (Happily, it worked this time to jump ahead in the story)

Threading all done and here I have lowered the beater bar back into position and then used soft tie cords to hold it upright and centered. Note how the ends of the warp bouts have curled around on themselves.   

Then sleying the reed starts, and in the case, 2 ends per dent in my 12 dent reed.  I have taken my total number of ends, divided by the epi of 24 for the total project width. Then I divide that by 2 for the half width. That gives me the start point from the centre. This took time as well as the threads still curled up on each other and I had to extract each one as I went along.

Here's a view taken over the top of the beater to see the sorting of warp ends for sleying.  With a 16 shaft point twill, it's a relatively easy time of sorting two ends per run and then using the threading hook to nab the groups.   I take my time and keep them well sorted. No crossed ends !

So, that leaves us about to tie on and start weaving..... but what are we going to weave?   

That's for next time. 😁

Making Waves 🌊

Every now and then, I feel the need to try something new or do something old differently.  Weavers can get into comfortable ruts like anyone else.    Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, so you try a different angle.

So speaking of angles.   I have woven "Wall of Troy" in the past but found this nifty tessellated twill progression at handweaving.net  #78316      If you get right up close, it has a series of little pattern boxes all neatly marching along.   The effect is almost 3D and looks like waves or ripples.

I have this painted tencelwarp from Carr Park Artisans called Blue Lagoon, but at 200 ends, it's rather narrow.  I added a double black (two threads used as one) and a soft gold tencel.     The final band is 8/2 tencel in Mineral Green.  So I'm also trying out an asymmetrical  design as well.   Lots going on....but let's back up a bit to the beaming part....

Some pretty pictures of the threading...

The view of the back where I was testing out 3D printed lease stick holders from GingerlocksHandwovens.com    I had some difficulty keeping them in place and that seems to be on me as I had them turned the wrong way  😳   I must say the lease sticks being firmly wrangled and not bouncing on a cord was quite an improvement!

I went onto buy a set of Lofty Fiber's Helping Hands as well and so plan to see which one suits me best.    

The draft from Handweaving.net #78316

It's a tough grouping of colours to team up with.  After a black weft, I replaced the double black ends with amethyst and used amethyst as weft.    It's nice, but not great.... hindsight says I should have stuck with the back as it has the best impact for all colours and visuals.    Given so many new things being attempted, something had to fall short in expectations.     Can't hit every one out of the park!

The show and tell portion......

I tried some in the shade and some in the sun.  I'm not that good a photographer to compensate beyond toggling my camera to automatic settings.    You do your best.... and try again.

So the learning curve?

• I loved the advancing twill and will weave it again sometime.
• asymmetrical is kinda nifty but the OCD part of me likes things in balance (but I will try it again)
• go with your gut when it comes to colour choices.
• don't be afraid to try!  
• failure is how we learn and grow.
• I'll try the Gingerlocks lease stick holders again but the right way around. 
• Try the Helping Hands version next and see.  Then compare experiences.