Spears 4 Warping the loom--Photos

This is the box the loom came in. My husband wanted to know what was meant by "reasonable length".

The loom is now all warped and ready for "Hands on History" day at the elementary school. Here are some photos of the process. Assembling the loom is not difficult. It's the actual warping where I have problems, mainly because it's tedious.

I forgot to take a photo before I started. This is with one section  of 16 threads put on. 

The reed/heddle has 168 dents--which is 10 dents per inch...it's about 17 inches long. As I said in the previous post about this loom, the warp is one from a project I had to cut off without finishing. The yarn itself is Paton's Classic Wool, in various colors.

The metal hook thing is a mini crochet hook which came in the box.  I use it to  sley the reed.  To Sley means to bring the yarn or thread through the reed and/or heddle. The thing with the wire loops is the heddle for this loom. The problem I'm currently having with trying to weave, here, is that the yarn that goes through the spaces gets stuck on the loops.

Here, I've poked the hook through the loop and grabbed the yarn with it.

Now, I'm pulling the yarn back through the loop.

The spaces on the reed are wide enough that I can just poke the yarn through.

This is from the back, tying the warp to the back beam. I used  the "butcher's knot" to tie on this end.

Here it is, all ready to go for the 4th-5th graders! 

On the cloth beam end, I secured the warp with an overhand knot and then put some blue painter's tape over the teeth, so the threads wouldn't come out when I advance the warp. On the other end, I used an old grocery circular (I think it was Vons) to cushion the threads so the layers don't stick together. This is something they don't tell you about in the instructions. When you weave, you need to put cardboard, smooth sticks, or an old sheet in between the layers of the threads and the cloth. In my case, it's last week's handy dandy grocery circular. Newspapers wouldn't work if you were working with a white warp because the ink would rub off on the threads.

I'm having a huge problem with this. The threads in the spaces want to hang up on the loops in the wire heddle. I'm not sure how to combat this. Battens? Or maybe misting the warp? I am NOT taking the warp off and sizing it with the solution of Elmer's glue!

I've ordered a new plastic heddle and it should get here by the end of this week or the beginning of next. They don't make this loom any more, so I ordered a 10 dent 16 inch Ashford heddle.

Duh! I just went back over and I tightened the warp. It doesn't stick, now. (Oh, darn, I've got another heddle coming...I'll just have to do a double heddle next time!)

Floor looms have a ratchet/gear thingy with a handle. This one, obviously, doesn't. To tighten the warp, I unscrewed the wing nuts on the back beam on both sides, and rolled the beam until the threads were extremely taut. You need to be able to feel/hear a "twang" on the thread, like it was a bent bow or guitar. 

Please note: you will not be able to launch arrows, play "Stairway to Heaven" or "Smoke on the Water" on your warp! That's NOT the purpose of the loom!

If you have a warp that is longer than the length of your loom, you will need to periodically roll the cloth up on the front one. To do this, you have to unscrew the wing nuts so you can roll both beams. You can't roll just the one, because if you do, you'll snap the threads. You'll also need to tighten the back beam from time to time, because the thread will stretch.

Even with the tightened warp, I have to slide the heddle up and down the length of the warp a couple of times to unstick the threads. Oh well, it will have to do for now. I think the 4th graders will enjoy it...or at the very least it will be an "educational" experience.

Warping the Spear's Size 4 Weaving Loom: First impressions and Planning.

I've been scouring the web, trying different word combinations, trying to find either a video tutorial or just a plain print one for this loom with not a lot of luck. A lot of people post photos of projects completed on this loom, and I've come across blogs that discuss getting one of the Spear's looms in a variety of sizes, but not one that discusses in detail how to go about warping the Size 4 with the rigid heddle.

First of all, I've misplaced my instruction manual. I read it when I first got the loom, of course, but I didn't find it very helpful. Someone posted pictures of the size 4 instruction booklet on Flicker, and I read the instructions again and found my original opinion to be correct. It was difficult to understand. I know why I'm having difficulties, but that doesn't help. The instructions fail to detail how to tie on the warp...at least, I'm having difficulty figuring them out.

I am in the process of warping the loom. I'm using warp from a project that I had abandoned and cut off a different loom. I didn't measure it...I think the strands are around 5 feet long. I don't really care how long it is. The purpose of this project is so to give the fourth graders at a local elementary the experience of weaving during a "pioneer living" day.

The loom itself was originally sold as a toy. The box says that it has a 16 inch weaving width. The front and back beams have "teeth". That is, there are grooves or slits cut into both beams. The beams are identical. They are also not smooth, which is a problem if you have a hairy yarn that snags.

A heddle is a warp lifting device. It lifts a group of threads at one time so you can weave more efficiently. Most simple rigid heddles will have a slot and hole construction. Think of a picket fence as the heddle. There are spaces in between each picket post. Those are the slots. Imagine each picket board with a knot hole in the center and you have the idea.

The wire heddle has twice as many spaces as the beams. This means that you have to put two threads in each of the "teeth" on the beams. One of the two goes through the wire loop and the other goes in the space in between. There will be 168 warp threads then, if you use the original heddle and if you use the teeth on the beams. Since I'm using Paton's Classic Wool, the beam teeth are full. If you had a thinner yarn or thread, it wouldn't be so bad.

So those are my impressions, so far. I will take photos to show what I'm doing and keep you posted.

If you want to ask questions, leave me an e-mail so I can get back with you. Thank you, Jackie and Angela for posting comments on previous blog entries!