I'm back again... and fairly quick about it too. It's Easter weekend and I hope all of you who celebrate, have a nice time with family and friends. 🐣🐰
So do you recall this recent posted project? It featured a painted warp by Loominaria, who are now sadly closed. There was 25 ends of this painted warp left over. A smidgen. Too little to do anything with, and too much to throw away..... That started a nugget of thinking. A challenge even. How to use that 25 ends to its best advantage.
So one end was reserved for any mishaps and the remaining 24 represented one inch in a warp. How to maximize that one inch? It's a series of plums, blues, bronze- brown and gold tones. Even some mossy green tones. I decided to go with two shades of blue. Greyed Blue and Azure.
After mulling and playing around with various drafts, I fell back to my favourite. I have it in 16 shafts and 8.... so I reworked it to a 12 shaft (of draft #78116) to maximize the 24 ends. With some gradient on either side as the blues shift from one side to the other. Will it work? I have no idea until we try.... The colours in the draft are NOT a good representation of the actual used.....
Here's the 8 shaft version #75578 (as a bonus 😊 )
Here it is being beamed on using the Helping Hands from
Lofty Fiber, and below, I'm taking another try at using the paper holder from
Gingerlocks Handwovens. This time with non skid matting underneath so they don't move and create torque in the paper. It worked!
Closer look at the paper hangers below.
Gingerlocks Handwovens had slipped two of these 3D printed 'balls' in my order and you slip them on the (non removable) posts on the Megado. They went from a hazard to a nifty hand up.
Another new toy from Lofty Fibers is the sley assist and it's designed for Louet looms: Spring, David and Megado. They also have a beater brace for the Spring and David but not yet for the Megado so you'll see I have used soft cords to tie off the beater to upright. The assist is secured by a 'screw' that sits on the reed slot. The darker support shifts on a slot to accommodate any height reed. You can have it angled (as shown) or lay it flat. (I'm sure they are working on similar device for other loom brands)
Then you reach through and sley the ends through the reed. I think next time I will tie off the beater so it leans backwards a bit and reduce the reach.
All done.... and time to shift it to an upright position and place the top of the beater back on.
Here the reed is upright and is held in place by slots in the end of the sley assist brackets. You loosen the light grey screw to shift it along in the reed track and snug it in tight to hold the reed in place.
Reed in the slot on the left..... and below, on the right.
Once the top is back on and secured, the brackets can be loosened and removed. I liked the process and will use it again for sure. I was reaching up and over the top of the beater to sley the reed and this old body complained every time.
So sometimes you just have to play with new toys, new ideas and take a leap of faith..... Next time, we'll see if my idea of how to save and use the painted warp ends plays out.....
🌷 🐣 🌷
