Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks

Notice anything different here?

There are no sectional rakes on the back beam. I decided it was time to try something new on Emmatrude.. to up my game! I love the evenly tensioned warps and effective method of beaming them on my Louet Spring 'Lilibet', so I wanted to see if I could transfer those steps to my Swedish style big gal. She doesn't have a built in raddle so I dug out the raddle that came with the loom (and never used!) First up was to wind the warp. It's 2/10 mercerized cotton, sett 28 epi for twill. (I'll discuss the draft later.) The warp is 9.5 yards long and I'm looking for a nice big mess of tea towels from it! As much as I weave towels here, they seem to leave as fast as I make them! There are 650 ends in this warp. This type of warping needs to have an even number of warp ends as I'll be slipping a rod through the uncut loops of the warp. So if its an uneven number, add one more!


There are four colours, black, white, red and grey, wound in a sequence of 16 ends each, repeated 10 times, with a final stripe of black for a matching border of colour either side. The black borders on either side also have an additional 4 ends. The warp at the top left corner is my smooth continual loops, right beside the cross. I 'crocheted' chained the three warp bouts starting at the bottom and stopped within half a yard from the top... and then prepared to marched it over the loom. BUT...


I had to stop and think things through and how to proceed. What will work here? I lashed the raddle to the top of the back beam. I decided to find the centre point of the beam and then centre of the apron rod. This also included the raddle so all parts will be easier to line up when necessary! I left the top wooden rail of the raddle in place for the time being (it lifts off).


Below I have marked the centre of the metal rod with green tape and marker pen and then using seine cord I tie a support one inch away from the main apron rod. See below.


Then I carefully loop the warp bouts onto the metal rod, being careful to get the colour order right! Tied another support cord on the right hand side. Then I noticed that the whole situation was heavy and wanted to flop down. So I used cords to support the weight of the rods and warp in an upright position.

Pictured below is where I had to tie cords onto the wooden rod and bring up over the back beam/ raddle. The warp went over the top of the raddles and across the tops of the shafts and to the front beam. This support tie would only be needed until the rods were wound onto the warp beam and then can be removed. Okay, that's under control... now what about lease sticks? The best spot for those seemed to be the big open space behind the shafts so I tied the lease sticks into place, using the side supports to secure to. Notice that I tape the ends 'just in case'. You only have to have dropped them once! There are also loops through the cross as well, another back up! The lease sticks can slide to and fro on these cords which is neat. When winding on, if the lease sticks meet a tangle, the sticks move, alerting you to a potential problem.

This is how it looked from the front. There is no reed in the beater and there is a wrap around the front beam to hold things steady. Now I remove the cross loops. That sucker is corralled tight!

I used a piece of thin card board over the raddle tines when I took the rail cap off. Took my warp width and divided by two... and found the right far right slot I needed. I simply leaned forward and counted off 28 ends and dropped into the slot. I worked my way across and then replaced the cap rail. Edit: I then lash the entire length of the warp between the metal bar and the wooden apron rod. I lace every one inch or so and tie off. I started to wind on and so far, all is going well! The rods are now on the back beam, so off come the support ties that held them upright. The paper was slipped in and I balanced my time between slowly turning the warp beam and moving to the front to strum the warp to remove tangles and strongly pull out any slack. Then at the back I pull straight down on the paper to remove slack there as well. So, back and forth for the whole 10 yards. No big tangles, no snapped threads. Things are going great!


Now my attention shifts to the front of the loom and I'm getting ready for threading. But looks at the size of the gap between the lease sticks and the back end of my 12 shafts! That's going to be a big lean in to reach them. I tried to thread about 2 inches and then I decided to make some changes. I went back to my old method of hanging the lease sticks using cords from the upper beams of the castle. It worked well for me so no point discarding what was clearly a better technique.


As you can see, it really moves them in tight and makes it easier on the operator! I'm all in favour of that...

So lets shift our attention to the threading. I have a little system I use. I have my sheet with the threading on the knee beam and I work it into logical groupings. In this case the threading is: 1,2,3,4

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

1,2,3,4

It's a simple twill and I was inspired to do some towels after seeing a similar threading in an old Weavers magazine. For this threading, I pulled two heddle groups of 1 to 4, then two sets of heddles 5 to 8 . Then I concentrate on the first four heddles .

I reach through with my sley hook and open up the four ends and slip my fingers through the four ends. Trust me this happens a lot faster that it takes me to write this or you to read it :) Then with the free thumb I move from heddle to heddle, using the thumb to brace the heddle as I slip the hook through and pull the end through. The thread being held under tension means it's easier to snag and deal with. Texsolv heddles do eventually loosen up with use on the loom and they are then easier to shift. I use the side of the reed hook to slide them over and then start on the next group. Once all 16 ends of a colour grouping are done, a quick check and then secure with an over hand slip knot... next!

It was hard to hold the hook in place and take the picture!

Okay, threading done, next came sleying the reed. In this case I'm using an 8 dent reed, sleyed '3, 4' for 28 epi. Once done I divided into smaller groups and then tied to the front apron rod on both sides to support the rod and then worked my way across the warp tying on.

Once all are done, then start on the far right bout and snug each group up tight, complete the knot and **quickly** move the next group and smartly race across the warp! When done, using the palm of your hand roll your hand from LEFT side back to the right, easing up as you roll towards the far right. Do this 2 or 3 times and then stop. Walk away and do something else for 20 minutes. When you come back the warp tension will be even. {no matter how fast you move tying from right to left, the right side will feel 'looser' when you are done. You'll want to tweak the warp endlessly! Jane Stafford demonstrated this on the Louet DVD on warping and this WORKS!} An old post of mine that shows this technique on my Louet loom is here. It will show you the process I'm trying to dupicate on the Woolhouse Tools loom.

Then I went to the back of the loom and pulled my tie up cords. Eight treadles and I selected the centre eight for convenience. Almost there! Should be weaving soon...

Wound some pirns and got my shuttles ready....

Then as I walked by the loom I noticed this.... see below.... oh, crap! I seem to have a hitch in my giddy up.... look at the warp line from the back to the front.... *sigh*

I was so focused on getting details right, that I missed this point entirely. The raddle sat on the top of my *second* back beam. THREE inches higher than the normal beam. In my old method, I would slip the lease sticks through the gap. Below, see the extra height on the back of the warp. I have looked at this several times and I can't see where else the raddle could have gone unless I take the entire second warp beam off the loom and I really don't want to have to do that. So I hung my floating selvedges over the upper beam as well. But in the test piece woven with scrap yarn, I had a hard time finding the floaters to move the shuttle over and under. So I moved them lower to the normal back beam. Much better.

So will this warp weave up okay? Do I have 10 yards of 'heaven or hell' ahead of me? I decided to go and weave on my Louet instead .... but that's 'nuther story!

Back soon.... (tee hee)