Mira - my "new" counterbalance loom

A few weeks ago, DH (dear husband) and I trekked to Boston for the chance of a one-owner used Leclerc Mira, 48 inch weaving width - a solid counterbalance loom, appropriate for rugs as well as other types of weaving.

Now that she's home with us, we've discovered that she's from the early 1970's, which makes her about 40 years old. She hasn't been used in awhile, but is in good shape. 

So far we have:

• Wiped down and vacuumed everything.
• Tightened up the frame.
• Adjusted the beater so that it will strike the fell evenly.  
• Added bumpers for the beater, so wood doesn't clunk into wood.
• Cleaned up the apron bars (which are literally bars of metal), and replaced one that was bent.
• Resewed the ends of the aprons, which had been sewn on just crooked enough to make the aprons a bit skewed (probably why that bar was bent!)  Also patched one spot where the warp beam apron tore at the end, likely where the bent apron bar was.  It would drive me nuts trying to keep even tension on a loom where the apron rods are skewed by about an inch.  With the warp beam, which has a longer apron, it was relatively easy to set the sewing machine next to the loom and sew the end of the apron.  With the cloth beam, we took off the beam and set it on the ironing board which was next to the back beam, so that the cloth beam rested against the back beam.  DH moved the cloth beam while I sewed.  I was truly dreading this project, but it turned out to be easier than I thought - certainly easier and cheaper (free) than installing new aprons, or replacing them with texsolv cords. 
• Put the brake on correctly (it was on backwards) and figured out how to work it.  Still trying to find out how to make it work more effectively.  Right now, whenever the brake is released, the band that wraps three times around the drum gets misaligned and must be manually fixed.  Probably will need to replace the brake mechanism in the long term. 
• Got some molding (about one inch wide) and cut it into 40 inch lengths, so now I have slats to use to pack my warp (and also for packing around the knots at the start of my weaving).  DH sanded the rough spots and even put on Howard's Feed and Wax, so the wood feels lovely.  I'm not a fan of paper, and the cardboard slats I use for the table and rigid heddle looms won't be strong enough when I'm working with the high tension of rugs, so wood is perfect.  (Also had a chance to see how much better wood keeps tension consistent - as opposed to paper - during a recent rug-weaving class.)
  

Still to do:
Get shoe laces and similar doodads that help during warping for holding the lease sticks and raddle. 

Just about to add texsolv cord to lash the apron (with the apron rod that inside the ends of the apron) to the exterior apron rods.  Just did this on my Dorothy table loom, and it was so easy. 

Also am going to wind a test warp and dress the loom, because until I actually use this loom - especially since it's a counterbalance where I'm used to a jack loom - I still don't know what I don't know about Mira.

Tension but texture with variable-sized heddles

Have had so much fun experimenting with variable-sized heddles (segments put together in the frame and used as one heddle in my rigid heddle loom).

This has allowed me to use a lot of different sized yarns, but keep the finer yarns closely set, while still leaving enough room for the bulky yarns.

But here's the problem.  The bulky yarns use up more space on both the front and the back beam, which will inevitably lead to problems - the thickest yarns become tighter and tighter. One way to reduce this would be to add weights to the finer yarns and let them hang off the back of the loom; this works great on a conventional loom (my Dorothy table loom, for example), but my RH loom is portable, so weights get awkward really fast.

I use cardboard slats to keep my warp even as I wind it, so as I weave and advance the warp, these fall out (usually on my feet...)  I then put these on the back beam, under the threads that are finer, to bring them to the same tension as the bulkier warps.  As I weave, I find that I have to keep adding these slats, and sometimes even have to press against them towards the end of the piece, because there is quite a bit of difference between the tensions. But whatever works.

On this latest scarf, I've been using a wooden weaving sword, which has helped with tension, but also has helped me clear the shed because I forgot how sticky eyelash yarn is when you use it as warp. Only 4 ends of eyelash, but I have to clear Every. Single, Pick.  Remember:  use eyelash yarn for weft. Use eyelash yarn for weft.

I've also found it helpful to "beat" with a comb, rather than with the heddle.  There is such variety in warp sizes, that when I beat with the heddle, sometimes the pick gets pulled out as I push the heddle back to it's resting position.  The comb has allowed me to keep the lines of weft even.  Sometimes, when I tighten the warp, especially towards the end of the scarf, the last few picks I have just woven get out of shape. I can carefully  re-align them with the comb.

Oh, and I found that all the little heddle segments didn't like standing up straight, so I added a wider segment at each side for stability.  This may not be a problem with the Majacraft loom, but if you've done a DIY number, you may want to try this.

Yes, this is more work, but the results are worth it.

Working with a peg loom

My husband recently made me a gorgeous peg loom with two different sizes of pegs, and I thought I'd share what I've learned about the basics of weaving on a peg loom.

Overall design
1. Decide if you want a bulky piece (large holes) or a less bulky piece (small holes).
2. Place pegs in the holes approximately as wide as you’d like the piece you are weaving to be. The first time, just use some of the pegs, to get an idea how peg weaving works.

Warp  

3. The warp is the yarn that runs vertically in your weaving. It needs to be strong because the weft (what weaves horizontally) will be pushed down the warp many times during the weaving, and large weavings can become heavy. Carpet warp is narrow, but very strong and durable. Some people use crochet cotton. When you’re done weaving, the warp will normally only show at the ends, as a fringe.

4. Decide how long you want your weaving to be when it’s finished. The rule of thumb is to make the warp 3-4 times as long as that. This gives you enough to work with as the warp threads are doubled (threaded through the pegs and hanging down on both sides), and when you finish the weaving, possibly with a fringe. It can be frustrating when you don’t have enough warp to work with. Experience will teach you how much works best for you, but start with 3-4 times the length you want for now. For your first sampler, you may want to make your warp threads only a yard or two long, so you are learning the process of weaving, not the process of measuring and handling long warps. See “For more information” below for information about creating long warps.

5. Take out one of the pegs at one end of the loom (you’ll work across the row). Push the threading tool loop through hole in the peg, stick one end of the warp through the loop and pull the loop back through the peg. Even out the warp tails so the tails are both about the same length, then put the peg back in the hole. (At this point you can put down the threading tool.) With the threaded peg, the end with the warp should be closest to the bottom. Now repeat all across the row of pegs.

6. Tie the warp threads together into a loose knot that’s 8 to 10 inches below the pegs. Make this a knot that you will be able to untie easily later. The knot helps keep the warps from becoming tangled, and can also be helpful if you drop the loom and pegs fall out. It also helps keep the weaving from loosening up too much as you are weaving.

Weft
7. The weft is the yarn that runs horizontally, and which you will be weaving through the pegs. Unlike the warp, the weft can be almost any yarn. You also can use lots of different yarns in one piece, playing around with color and texture.

Weaving
8. You can work on a table, or on your lap. I like sitting in an easy chair and rest the loom on the arms of the chair. If you plan a very large weaving that will become heavy, you may want to clamp the ends of the loom onto a table.

9. Tie one end of the weft to a peg at one end and leave a tail (you can use a yarn needle to weave this in when you are done). Then start weaving across the pegs, in front of a peg, in back of the next peg, in front of the next peg, in back of the next peg. When you reach the end of the row, be sure to go around that peg and start back in the opposite direction. Press the yarn down to the bottom of the peg; if the weaving feels too loose, gently pull the end to tighten it up.

10. Some people don’t like to use knots, and just overlap yarns when they start using a different color yarn. I like to use knots but make sure I keep them at the back where they won’t show.

11. When you have several inches of weaving on the pegs, you are going to need to move this down onto the warp below so there is room for you to weave some more.

12. Lift out the right-most peg if you’re right-handed (the left-most peg if you’re left-handed) and press the weaving that’s on the peg down the warp several inches so it’s completely off the peg. Replace the peg back into its hole. Repeat across the row. At first, it will look like there is a big gap between the weaving that’s below the pegs and what’s on the pegs, but as you repeat this process, the weaving comes together.

13. As the weaving gets close to the knot that you tied in the warp threads, untie the knot and tie another one farther down the warp.

14. You can change yarns and colors, creating all sorts of effects. See “For More Information” for a tapestry book that will give you good ideas to try.

Finishing
15. When the weaving piece is about as long as you want it, and you have moved all the weaving off the pegs and onto the warp, pull out the pegs again, and press all the weaving further down the warp until you have 6 or more inches of warp at the top of the weaving; if you’re going to want a fringe, have the warp that’s left be the length of the fringe plus an inch for knotting. It’s helpful to work on a table so you have a flat surface to work on. Tighten the weaving by pressing it towards the center of the piece while holding onto the warp threads at both ends of the weaving piece.

16. The easiest way to finish your weaving is to tie the warp threads from two different pegs together in an overhand knot and leave the remainder as fringe. If you don’t tie warp threads from different pegs together in some way, the weaving will come out. If you don’t want a fringe, knot the warp threads, then use a yarn needle to weave the warp threads back into the weaving.

17. Even up the fringes with scissors. Using a yarn needle, work with the yarn ends where you started and ended a color; weave these into the piece in at least two different directions to help lock them in.

18. You may want to wet-finish your weaving. How you do this depends on the yarn content. For example, most wools can “full” (the fibers spread out) and even “felt” (becomes a solid sheet which can’t be unwoven). Some fibers can shrink. If the care instructions for a yarn say “hand wash in cold water, dry flat” then that’s how you should wash it.

19. There are whole books written about finishing – both about different kinds of fringes/finishing, and wet-finishing woven pieces.

For more information:
Measuring a long warp: When you have a lot of warp threads and they are long, it helps to measure between warping pegs. These can be warping pegs that you buy, but people have also used clamps set the length of the warp apart, or chair legs of upturned chairs, or pieces of wood stuck in two separate kitchen drawers. For more ideas for “winding the warp,” read a book about weaving such as Learning to Weave by Deborah Chandler. This is available in libraries (and interlibrary loan if your library doesn’t have it), as well as from the many used book sources on the internet.

Become a member of Ravelry.com http://www.ravelry.com and become a member of the Pegs & Sticks forum there http://www.ravelry.com/groups/pegs--sticks (you have to be a Ravelry member for this link to work). Ravelry is free and the community has many resources – including a lot of people who can answer your questions, and make suggestions. In fact, Ravelry has many resources for weavers, knitters, spinners, and other fiber-related crafts. Definitely worth a look.

The internet has websites, blogs, and videos; just Google “winding the warp,” “tapestry weaving,” “weaving finishing,” and so on to find further information.

For more ideas of weaving techniques with your peg loom, see a book about tapestry weaving techniques, like Tapestry Weaving by Kirsten Glasbrook

For more ideas about fringes and other finishes, see a book like Finishing Touches for the Handweaver by Virginia West.

Experimenting with ribbon and art yarns

I've been playing with "art" yarns - those that aren't conventional but have interesting texture, like ribbon yarns, eyelash yarns, boucle, and a mill-end that has a narrow filament with tiny flags every half inch.

I've been wanting to find a way to effectively showcase these yarns. Partly because I used the mill-end with the flags as a stripe in a warp - which worked fine as warp (strong and not stretchy), but it just disappeared into the warp - I will have to use twice as much for it to have the impact that I want. (Have used eyelash yarn as warp and won't do that again any time soon - it looks good, but. Every. Single. Shed. has to be cleared for Every. Single. Pick. Arggh!)

I had seen images of weft sticking out to the side to create a side fringe, and then saw it again in a book which brought the idea back to the surface(Woven to Wear). I've been fascinated with warp loops ever since I saw a video of an ancient Scandinavian loom which was initially warped by the creation of long weft loops. (First, a tape is created using a backstrap style loom, but as the weft is woven, a long loop is added on one side with each pass; the tape is then hung at the top of a wall loom and the weft loops in the tape become the warp to be woven on the wall loom.)

Anyway, I've found these loops interesting for a long time. Tried out a couple of different things. First, I wanted to see how the different "yarns" would look sticking out to the side. Also, I was curious to see how far out the weft should stick out, so I made it two inches on one side and one inch on the other.

I wanted a plain weft to alternate with the "art" yarn to 1) help it stand out, and 2) help lock it in, so the weft loops don't pull out. I experimented with thicker and thinner alternate wefts - decided that this will take more sampling, because it depends on the "art" yarn. Some get lost next to a thicker weft while others are enhanced by it.

It's a good idea to have a guide to help you keep the loops consistent, so you have a guide line of sorts on the loom that's just for the loops; the guide line is off to the side of the regular warp separated by the number of inches wide you want the loop to be. You weave the loops around the guide lines. First I tried guide lines made out of warp. I thought these were a bit stretchy, and I hated wasting the warp. Then I tried monofilament line (fishing line), since it doesn't stretch. But it's 1) not visible, and 2) doesn't stay where it's needed. I've decided I need the guide lines since they help me keep the loops consistent, and help me keep the two wefts managed, but no more monofilament. I may add extra weight just for these warp threads, like with a floating selvedge.

This is more time-consuming than conventional weaving. You need to manage two shuttles (and carefully make sure one doesn't get wrapped around the guide lines while the other one does), but you also need to manage going over (and under) the guide lines at the right times. You also have to lock in the "art" weft, so the selvedges take extra work, too. Once you develop a rhythm it's fine, but it's still quite a bit slower. Here's a scarf I wove with the "art" yarn with the multi-colored flags.

The eyelash yarn looks wonderful, both in the loops and with the other weft. The ribbon yarn - which I was expecting to be great - looked terrible. The loops were very ordinary-looking, some were so slippery that they didn't stay locked in, and the ribbon didn't look good with the other weft next to it. The ribbons are spectacular as warp, I know from other projects, so perhaps that's where I'll use them.

My mind is buzzing with ideas for scarves now.

Working with bamboo

I just finished a lovely bamboo scarf, my first with this fiber.  I wanted something light and airy for a summer scarf, and absolutely fell in love with the sheen of bamboo.  And when I got the cone (ordered it by mail), I loved the soft silky texture, too. 

But the sheen and softness spell slippery.  And since I was doing a hand-manipulated weave - Brooks Bouquet - I had to handle it more than I would normally, especially since I was using the bamboo for both warp and weft.

It's slippery, but also kind of grabby, so the warp threads tend to want to grab onto other warp threads, which can lead to tangles.  I planned on a fringe, but when I wet-finished the scarf, the fringe tangled - a lot - so I cut the fringe to a bit less than 2 inches, shorter than I'd ordinarily use.  Now it's behaving itself.  After wet finishing the scarf seemed a bit wrinkled, so I gave it a light press with a cool iron (set on the "silk" setting) and the wrinkles disappeared while the sheen seemed to increase.  The green was colorfast in cold water.

And oh, the drape is lovely, and the scarf feels nice and light, so it's just what I wanted for a summer scarf.

I used Norwood 5/2 bamboo from the Woolery, set at 10 EPI, which made for a very open weave, but that's what I was looking for.  I wanted a lacy feel and look.  

Scarf made with variable sized RH segments

    I've been experimenting with different-sized RH segments placed together in one rigid heddle.  
Having finished the scarf, this is what I've seen:

I was a bit shy about moving the heddle up and down for the two sheds - didn't want the parts that are rubber-banded together to separate.  While I often use only one hand to move the heddle, here I've been using both hands, grabbing the top left and right.  It wasn't hard to get into the rhythm of using both hands.   I still want a few more rubber bands, though, including one in the center. 

I had expected problems with the unstretchy cotton rug warp (which was on the left and right) and the very stretchy and thicker wool warp (which was in the middle).  After awhile, tension became an issue because the warp yarns have different stretch, but also because they take up different thickness on the cloth beam as the cloth is woven.  I ended up putting some sticks on the back beam under the thicker warps so that the weaving would be straighter.  After I took the cloth off the loom, though, and it wasn't under tension, much of the differences resolved.  However, as with any piece with different thickness warps, there is still some variability.  While the picks look straight, the cloth bubbles from the different thicknesses - but that's part of the fun here.

There is some "tracking" because there are spots where there were gaps in the heddle (between the different-sized segments).  These areas look fine, going along with the thick/thin flavor of the scarf.  I could minimize this next time by sleying threads through the slots between the segments; I wasn't confident this would all hold together and didn't want any stray threads, but it would have been fine.  Fulling during finishing minimized, but didn't eliminate, the tracking. 

I wove leaning the loom up against a table instead of on my lap, because it's easier to get to the down shed without wrestling with the heddle - and I did not want to wrestle my rubber-banded heddle.  
Even though the "holes" on my variable heddle are a bit lower than on the conventional heddle for my loom, the shed was still okay.  I was able to use stick shuttles, but wonder if it's too small for boat shuttles.

The differences in the yarns are nicely highlighted.  This was a stash scarf, and while I had colors I liked together (blue and white with splashes of red and black), I didn't have any "art' yarn that went with them.   Next time I'll use a different color scheme so that I can use my more funky yarn; somehow there is still a lot of yarn in my stash to choose from. 

    One thing I didn't do yet was to cut the segments smaller.  For example, the 5-dent segment is 3-4 inches wide, but I'd like to work with smaller segments of really wide yarn.  My DH says he can do it. 

    Could I have done something similar with a conventional rigid heddle that's big enough for the fattest yarn, say a 5-dent heddle? (like the 5-dent heddle section I'm using for the bulkier yarns.)  Yes, but the thinner yarns (those that are going through the 12-dent sections) would be spread out a lot, or else would be sleyed with several threads for each dent.  Either would give a different look. 

    Of course, it would be possible to have this kind of variability with a conventional table or floor loom.  You'd thread through the individual heddles, then space the threads through a reed that's big enough for the thickest yarn.  You'd also double-up the thinner yarns in the individual reed dents.

    But it's so much easier to direct warp a RH loom.  So these variable segments used in one rigid heddle are just tailor-made for a RH loom.

Experimenting with variable-sized heddles

    After seeing a discussion on Ravelry about the Majacraft dynamic heddle rigid heddle loom that has variable-sized segments of heddles, I had to try it for myself.  Not having $500 plus for the Majacraft, gorgeous as it is, I tried something else.  Here's a link to the discussion; you have to be a member of Ravelry to see it, but it's free to join.

    I purchased RH segments from Village Spin and Weave.  Folks use these segments for backstrap and other narrow weaving, and since they only cost $6.25 to $8.25 each, the outlay is small.  These are solid, sturdy plastic, made by Schacht (based on the name "Schacht" embedded in the plastic), a bit thicker than the plastic in my Ashford Knitters Loom heddles, and a bit less tall than the AKL heddles, but they're all the same height.

    My DH made me a wooden frame for the segments so that I can use them all together in whatever order I choose. The frame he made looks the same as the wooden frames for the heddles I already have.  I put the heddle segments I want to use in the frame, and hold the whole thing together with rubber bands.  Here's a picture from warping: 

    While direct warping, I was more careful than usual, as I didn't want the heddle to fall apart and leave me with a big snarl.

    From warping the scarf I'm using to play with the segments, I can already see some issues ahead.

First, the different thicknesses of the yarn will mean tension problems, so I will need to add something on the back beam for the skinnier yarn to keep the tension consistent.

Second, I think I need to get some more rubber bands, to make sure this holds together as I move the heddle up and down while I weave.

Third, the holes (vs. the slots) in the segments are not as tall as those in my AKL.  Don't know if this will make a difference or not.

Fourth, finishing will be interesting, with all these different yarns.  I used stash yarns for the warp, and will be using more stash yarns for the weft, so it's a real mix - cotton carpet warp, bulky variegated yarn (wool/acrylic), wool worsted weight, acrylic sport weight.

Fifth, there can be gaps between the segments.  Don't know if this will cause tracking, but since it's between different-sized yarns already, I don't think any tracking will be noticeable.

    Can't wait to see what develops.  Stay tuned.

Starting up

This is not my first blog post, but it's my first about my bags and scarves, as I start my online business.  Soon to add lots of images, start my Etsy shop, and weave like crazy.

I love doing one-of-a-kind work because I prefer always doing something a little different.  Cranking out the same thing over and over is just not for me.