Texsolv Heddles are easy to put on!

I was not looking forward to putting extra texsolv heddles on my Ashford loom as the last time I put some on a loom it was on 24 shafts and it took a very long time.

As one tends do do nowadays when pondering on a problem, I did a google and came to this site, http://www.earthguild.com/products/weaving/texhed/rtexhed.htm, and it all become clear. You do not take off the ties on the bundles of heddles until after you have put them on the harness, so they all go on at once in three simple steps! I have been cutting the ties and putting them on one by one! Oh wa ta na Siam!

Flying shuttle on Nilart and not enough heddles on Ashford

Whilst cleaning my Nilart I decided to fit the flying shuttle beater. The fitting was no problem, but oh my gosh, do those shuttles go! The second picture shows the barricades of pillows that I had to put in place to catch the damn thing before it wreaked total havoc. Once I realised that the problem was that the cord was too loose and was deflecting the shuttle order was restored.

I was very tempted to put on a warp straight away so I could start using it but I was very good and stuck to my plans to work on the stitched double weave sampler.

 Before I do anything else I have to put on some more heddles; not my favourite task. I do feel that the manufacturers could have supplied just a few more to start off with. The draft that I am using has one layer threaded on shafts 7 and 8 whilst the other layer is spread between shafts 1 to 6, hence the discrepancy in heddle numbers. The same problem would have arisen if I had decided to do some Huck.

No warp on the loom

Now that the poppy waffle scarf is off I have come to the end of the 15 yard warp that I put on to my Nilart loom last August. I am at a bit of a loss as it had almost become a permanent fixture. Putting on the warp was interesting as it was the first time that I had done such a long warp. It nearly got away from me a couple of times  but it all came good in the end.

 I wove two Brighton Honeycomb scarves before we went on holiday in mid October, a twill scarf in November and then the loom sat idle for two months whilst I moved on to some other projects.This year I have woven a twill scarf using an alpaca yarn for the weft and last of all came the waffle weave scarf.

I shall give the loom a good clean and polish and check all the screws and bolts, then it can have a rest whilst I get back to a stitched double weave sampler that I have half beamed onto a table loom.

Twill Scarf

 In addition to the work that I have been doing this weekend on poppy waffle (see previous post)  I have also finished off a scarf that had been on the loom before I started with waffle. This was on the same warp (straight 8) but using brown alpaca as the weft. I bought this yarn 9 months ago from John Arbon Textiles( http://www.jarbon.com/ when I was across in the UK for my son's wedding, so it was about time that I used some. Mind you, I haven't touched the yarn I bought the year before that when I went over for my other son's wedding.

 The pattern is the first one in "A Weavers Book Of 8 Shaft Patterns" (ed. Carol Strickland) and it was a nice "comfort weaving" exercise. I have used the draft before on another twill scarf but this one went much better.

Poppy Waffle Scarf is finished

I took the scarf off the loom on Thursday and I have had a pleasant time twizzling, repairing and finishing. Twizzling takes time so if I embark on a shawl I shall have to invest in an electric hair braider. I took the opportunity to combine this with a physical and digital reorganisation of my CDs.

Here are some before and after photos to record how much" waffling" I achieved. It certainly changes!  The photo on the right is a more accurate representation of the colour; the weft is Bendigo 2 ply "Holly". This draft obviously does not produce super deep cells (see here for the real thing http://fibresofbeing.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/waffle/). I shall probably return to this structure when the pressure for new tea towels becomes too much to resist.                                                                                                                      

I

Finding the time

In spite of my best efforts the Poppy Waffle scarf still has another 20"more to go. I have been grabbing little bits, and some big bits, of time to weave but other priorities have to take precedence sometimes. The lawn was getting to a silly height!

The frog is called Freddy.

Poppy Waffle

I started weaving this today today. In future I am always going to do a sample when changing the weave structure. On this scarf I started as soon as I could after lacing on and I had a succession of gremlins (broken selvedge, incorrect warp tension, shuttle too tight, weight falling off the warp beam) within the first nine inches. Once all these things were fixed and I was into the rhythm of the weave everything was fine.

I won't be doing much weaving over the Easter weekend as we are off down south to a rello bash but I might be able to get a bit more done on Monday and I should have it off the loom by next weekend. Then I have to decide what to put on this loom next; at the moment it is a toss up between huck lace or deflected double weave.