Showing posts with label rigid heddle loom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rigid heddle loom. Show all posts

Monday, 27 June 2016

The Next Steps

Winding on and Threading Sequence for Log Cabin



Warp wound on, still in the slots only, with just sufficient length to reach the front of your loom, begin to cut the loops in the threads and tie them, as you go, with a slip knot to prevent them being pulled out of the heddle.

Now, you need to concentrate!
Some threads have to be moved from the slots to the holes!
Here is a diagram showing where they should be moved to. If you click on it, it should get bigger!

You will notice that the warp colours alternate for a number of threads and then there are 2 of the same colour in the adjacent slot and hole. This reverses the colour sequence, so when you open a shed, i.e. lift your heddle up,  across your warp you will see stripes of one colour and then the other.
When you have completed one repeat, like the one in the diagram you warp will look similar to this next photo.
Work your way across the whole warp, tying your groups with a slip knot as before and check the sequence regularly.
When you are happy with the threading sequence, tie the left and right groups, with a single knot, to the front 'stick' or your warp. 

Then continue tying all groups.

Once they are all tied, check that the tension is equal all the way across your warp.
I find pulling the warp groups away from you helps to feel the tension of each group and get the tension equal. When you are happy, lightly tension again, going across the warp tying each group in a bow.
You are now ready to start weaving!
Wind two shuttles, one for each colour, preferably ones that are wider than your warp.




Saturday, 4 December 2010

First Weaving


Last month I led a weaving workshop for Bedfordshire Guild of Weavers, Spinner and Dyers and wasn't sure how the participants would receive it because non of them had woven before.
We used rigid heddle table looms, many of which were over 30 years old, and this meant that my hubby and I spent many hours checking them and making sure they were all in good working order. The last thing I wanted was for the equipment to let us down or make the weaving more laborious than it needed to be. The aim was that everyone could produce a wearable wild silk scarf. The yarn used had been hand dyed the month before.
The photograph above is the result of one members weaving started at the workshop.
If no-one else finishes their piece I consider the workshop a success, because Carol, the weaver of the above scarf, wants to weave more and is looking to buy a loom of her own. Carol dyed the silk at home using natural madder and still has some left to begin her second project. Very well done Carol!
I hope that, at next Tuesday's meeting, I shall see more from the workshop.