Gating the Loom

Luther Hooper got it right. He didn't mention that when one is doing it for the first time and has no "ideas as to the best way of adjusting the various parts for the work" one has to do the job several times before the ideas begin to materialise. I used instructions from the web (Glimakra and LeClerc have some good stuff and I particularly liked this document;- Hand Weaving ). It was only after three attempts at tieing up this counterbalance loom that I started getting a separation of warp layers that looked like sheds.

My eureka insights were;

- Immobilise the harnesses in their correct position before attaching the lamms and treadles

- Everything must be either exactly horizontal or exactly vertical (maybe treadles excepted) and it must be balanced

- To ensure the shafts rise and fall without tilting, don’t just wrap their support cords around the rollers, but actually fix them to the rollers

The last point is a quote from Peter Collingwood that I found at the archives of the a Rugtalk List (another site that is well worth looking at).

I am now getting shed that I can work with; I need to make a few minor adjustments but weaving should start real soon now!