Thoughts while threading the warp through the loom

10/3/16 I have a new project for the loom. It has gradations of lilac purples. It's going to be beautiful.

I was going to make a purse, but I miscalculated the number of warp strings, and there are waaaay too many. I have been trying to decide what I should do since the end of class last Tuesday.

My original plan was to continue to explore double weave techniques (weaving two separate layers of cloth at once) to do pockets and a pick up pattern. The goal for this project was/is to make one continuous piece of fabric that could be folded into a bag form with woven-in pockets.

When I was sleying the reed (pushing the threads through a grate) I forgot that since my project was to be 18 inces wide, I probably shouldn't put the warp bundles all the way across the weaving width of the loom! (36-ish inches!!!) Plus, that isn't even the whole warp! There are six bundles that wouldn't fit in the reed.

If I do the purse, I will have to take out about six to nine inches on either side of the center warps.

If I leave the threads through the reed and continue as is, I could make another double width blanket. I will still have enough warp bundles to make a purse, later.

When you weave, you have to have your plan in advance. You have to measure the threads. You have to have them wound so that they make a criss cross (or just the "cross") like an infinity symbol. that's at one end of the warp. You lay out your threads on the loom and slide the sticks through either side of the cross so you don't lose it. Bad things happen when you lose the cross. You can't weave without it on a modern loom. The cross determines which threads will go up and which will go down so the horizontal weft thread will go where it needs to.

You cannot just throw something together on the loom. The threads must be placed on the loom in order so that the pattern you have chosen to weave will be realized. You must be careful. You must go slowly. If you rush, or are upset when you are dressing the loom, you will make mistakes. You must be calm.

The Pendleton Loom: the treadles

Someone wrote to me and was asking about the treadles on my Pendleton loom. So I went out and took a closer look at my loom in order to answer the questions.

I really wish there was a manual for this loom someplace where I can get at it. And before you tell me about it, yes, I've looked up the online archived "Looming Arts" magazines from the University of Arizona. I suppose the information might be in an issue that has not been archived. They're missing some years and some issues within the years they have.

I'm relatively new to weaving...project-wise, and I've only done tie ups twice. Since that's done at the beginning of a project, I don't really remember what I did very well--it's been a few years. The looms that I've worked on at Torrance Adult school are mostly Nilus/LeClerc looms (that means they're from a different company). There are things about my loom that I don't remember the ones at the school having. There may be things that are different on mine but fulfill the same role.

For those of you who are completely lost, here is a short vocabulary lesson in loom "anatomy".
Heddle: a string or wire set perpendicular to the warp. One heddle holds one warp thread in order to lift it when you weave.
Harness: a frame that holds a bunch of heddles.
Treadle: a pedal--something that you push up and down with your foot. It's called a treadle rather than a pedal, because treadle is an older word. You tend to jump around on the treadles of a loom, sort of like you would if you were playing a Bach fugue or something on a pipe organ.
Tie up: refers to how the treadles are tied up to the harnesses so the threads can be lifted. The treadles are connected to a particular heddle in a particular order. Some treadles are tied to more than one harness, depending on the pattern.
Brake pedal: That there is a brake does not mean that you can play speed racer on my loom (and if I catch you at it, be prepared to suffer the wrath of Mom!). The brake pedal is to stop and hold the beater in place so you can roll the cloth that is already woven onto the front beam and roll more threads off of the back beam. If you don't brake, the loom might collapse and you will get smacked by the beater, which will, at the very least, put an end to your weaving for the day.

Okay. That's enough for now. I can hear your eyes glazing over.

The person who asked me about the treadles was asking because whomever had sold her her loom had replaced the original treadles with some from a different company. The replacements didn't work very well.

So here we go. Treadles!

This post was first drafted in 2014, soon after I got the loom.