Category Archives: Looms

Current Weaving Projects

Looms, Project, Weaving
Knotted pile rug woven on ‘Bernie’.

On the upright loom I began another Turkish knotted rug after completing ‘Denim’ last year. This one is called ‘Te Aruhe Kowhaiwhai’. Te Aruhe is ‘the fern’ and Kowhaiwhai is a style of decoration common in Maori meeting houses. It’s my own design and represents the winding fern fronds of our forest home which we call The Oak and Fern. Possibly that means I’ll have to create an acorn pattern for the next one.

Handspun 2 ply cotton woven in tabby on ‘Dot’.

I began learning how to spin cotton a few months back and this woven test is from the first skeins I produced. Lots of ‘character’. I have improved enough that I am now producing a relatively even 3 ply that should weave up more neatly.

Variegated yarn table runner, birds eye twill on ‘George’.

The first table runner from the yarn brought back from NZ is complete. I’ll space out enough for fringes then start number 2. It will be different from this one in that it will have just white yarn in the weft to pick out the birds eye twill a little better.

QR code woven in skip plain weave on ‘Gypsy’.

It’s been slow going on this project as it’s a very manual and intricate process to weave each pick and after I leave it for a while I have to go back and try and remember how to do it to maintain a consistent transition from black to white and reverse.

These are the weaving projects. Next I’ll detail the spinning and will also update the Studio build pages with photos of the progress.

Hearthside Loom Restoration

Equipment, Looms

The restoration on the Sears Roebuck Hearthside Loom stalled over winter as I worked through various other projects. But in some unseasonably warm weather today I was able to set up outside and do some sanding.

The heddle frames (6) all need some cleaning, minor repairs, and some replacement parts before the loom can be put back together. I started with one (number 6 as it turns out – some previous owner had marked each with black marker on the unseen ends). I have generally preferred stamping the number into the visible top of the frame and putting matching numbers in the castle to match. Future work once they are cleaned up.

The first problem was the flat stamped heddles were all mixed up direction wise and also in some cases put on the heddle bars intertwined. I took off all the heddles and sorted them into the correct orientation. While they were off I sanded the rust of the heddle bars and put a light coat of CRC on them before putting the heddles back on. This frame had 80 heddles. 3 other frames look about the same amount and 2 don’t have any.

Replacement hook
Original hook

The heddle frames had two different styles of heddle hooks (and numerous missing). I believe the original were the simple threaded hook with a spring and drilled out dowel. I suspect over time some dowels split or broke and the owner at the time purchased the more modern metal hooks. I ‘borrowed’ some hooks to make up the 4 and in the future will buy replacement metal hooks to standardise. There are 3 heddle bars missing which will need replacing idc. To fit the newer hooks on this frame I had to drill out the small holes with something suitable for the screw part and also drill with a larger drill about 1/8 of an inch to allow for the spring stop to go below the surface of the wood – needed to ensure the hooks were at the correct height for the heddle bar.

The first heddle frame came up OK. It will certainly never rival some of my other looms for looks, but for functionality it will be fine. I’ll wait until just before re-assembly to apply some light oil/wax for protection.

I did sand down some other parts of the frame and will continue with that as I order the heddle bars and hooks.

Weaving in New Zealand

Looms, Weaving

We are just back from a very pleasant 3 weeks visiting family and friends in New Zealand. While visiting Havelock in the South Island I found a bag of variegated yarn for $10 and thought it might be ideal for a project.

Some of the polyester yarn

As it turns out that happened faster than I thought as our temporary home while in Wellington belonged to our friend Jinnie who has a table loom that was at the time not being used.

For the first time ever I dressed a loom without doing any real calculations first (apart from checking the WPI of the yarn and the dents per inch of the reed in the loom). I wound the warp around the back of two chairs and tied it on to the warp beam and wound it on under light tension ready to warp back to front. With Anne and I working back and front we had it dressed pretty quickly which was good as we had to pack it up the following day so we could drive it and Jinnie up to where she was currently living in Taupo.

After adding some thick weft to even out the warp I threw a few weft picks to ensure everything was working OK and barring one skipped dent there doesn’t seem to be any problems with the straight twill threading. After we left Taupo to return to Wellington Jinnie has continued weaving and some interesting color striping is starting to appear on the cloth.

Tartans and more tartans

Looms, Project, Tartan, Weaving, , , , ,

The weaving of the Brown tartan finished a little while back, but I kept the finished throw on the loom as we were visited by my sister-in-law and her husband (the new owners of the throw) and I thought it might be nice for them to actually see it on the loom. They were very pleased with how it came out. We’ll now take it off the loom and finish tying up the fringes on either end then wet finish it. Delivery will be next time we visit their Lookout Mountain home some time soon.

Brown tartan on the loom with yarn for the next tartan.

To save just a little time I will cut of the current tartan and leave the remaining warp threaded through the heddles and reed. I am currently winding the warp for the next tartan – a custom design for Anne’s niece and her fiance as a wedding present in April. By tying on to the threaded warp I can slight speed up the process of threading through both the heddles and reed. I have done this before and while it seems like it would be a real time saver – by the time you tie on every warp thread (or almost all – this throw is slightly smaller) it is quicker but not hugely. I think it might be one or two less steps that could introduce threading errors, which is a good thing.

A fairly simple tartan design but it does look good (on the software)

In between tartans I was working on the 2023 Scenic Valley Handweavers guild challenge which is to take analogous colors from a color wheel and also using black; highlight those colors. I was able to find three colors amongst my stash and decided not only to weave them somehow but also to, on the same warp, repeat the pattern three times using three different weaving techniques. A challenge on top of a challenge as it were!

The colors are from a very simple primary and secondary color wheel and are red, orange and yellow. The first technique was completely new to me and is called ‘skip plain weave’. Often seen in rugs (Central Asian), but also European and Southern American woven pieces. It is one sided as the ‘alternate’ colors float across the back behind the weft faced ‘front’. I have begun the second technique which is Turkish knot pile weaving. When I finish, the blocks will have the pile trimmed quite short. The final technique will be tapestry weaving. The warp is 8/2 cotton, the skip plain weave is 3/2 pearl cotton (left over from tartans) and the pile and tapestry are an acrylic knitting yarn left over from the ‘Four Horsemen’ blanket project. I will then mount and frame the whole thing, tentatively called ‘Blocks of Sunrise & Sunset’, before the deadline in June.

Dressing ‘Gypsey’
Skip plain weave
Starting the pile weaving

This project will take a pause while I push through the ‘Wedding Tartan’, but should be ready by the reveal date.

Modifying ‘Bernie’

Looms

My upright loom (Bernie) came with almost everything in working order, with the exception of the springs for the friction brakes and small pegs to hold the beater springs and raddle (when used). Bungee cords worked fine on the brakes and I made do with some small dowels for the pegs. To save some space when I moved the loom into the new studio I removed the hinged beater frame which effectively doubled the back to front size.

This was always planned – to replace the hinged beater with one that slid up and down the front frame – connected to the original springs so that the beater returns to the up position and is pulled down to beat. To do this I had to make 4 sided open ended boxes, one for each side, then cut a slot to hold the aluminum end pieces of the beater frame.

I waxed the front frame where it has to slide and will eventually fill in the slot where the old front to back hinged beater frame went. The boxes were made from some of the wood that came from the original frame. I only had to buy some screws.

The final job was to make the pegs. I ordered the wooden balls and the dowel came from Lowes. All the woodwork will get a final sand and a light coat of varnish to seal and it’s ready to go. I have begun winding a warp to try it out. More about that later.

Every now and again I get motivated to search through the Internet for images of upright looms, but as yet I’ve not found a match. Dryad’s and Leclerc’s are both similar but sufficiently different to discount them although they do both have a sliding beater so in that respect my loom is becoming more similar. Maybe one day…

Celebration

Looms, Project, Studio, Weaving

With the change in weather over the last month from the relatively normal regular rain/storms of Summer and early Fall, I finally managed to complete the roof. While the studio portion of the roof had been 90% complete there was the 10% over the spinning loft area and the large portion over the utility room above the garage. It took 2 weeks of fairly long days to take down the tarps and replace with the shingle roof.

Once done I no longer have to get ready for any rain by positioning buckets at strategic spots and was able to complete the move of all the large looms from the house to studio. Five looms are on the studio floor at present and one (‘Senior’) is disassembled on a set of shelves as I gradually clean it up prior to re-assembly. We also moved a lot of the artwork and wall hangings from the original loom room and I’ve hung them on the exposed walls to add a little bit of color.

Studio Floor
Spinning Loft display wall
Utility Room towards the Spinning Loft and Library

Still plenty of (now undercover) work on the Studio to do, but in the meantime work continues on the ‘Oak and Fern’ rugs and I’ve begun dressing the ‘Big Mac’ loom with warp for the Christmas towels.

Rainy Day work

Clean & Service, Equipment, Festivals, Looms, Project, Studio, Weaving

The ‘Oak and Fern’ bathmat is now finished. It’s still on the loom as I have enough warp for another four to five foot long rug. I may weave two smaller door mats for the doors from the studio to the garage and the workshop. I have plenty of weft yarn.

Oak & Fern Bathmat Finished

In other work in the studio I continued cleaning various parts of ‘Senior’. The treadles are like the rest of the loom wood – perhaps maple under a dark stain. One part that seems to be different is the shuttle race on the beater frame. It appears to be a darker wood and is typically a harder wood as it is an area that experiences a fair amount of wear and tear.

I’ve numbered the heddle frames as they are removed and cleaned to ensure I put them back in the right order. The frames and lamms seem to be in reasonable condition and don’t have much wear. One small shortfall is the lower lamm where the original wire connections to the treadle was made is only as wide as the 6 treadles side by side. Most looms have two extra treadles, i.e. for a 4 shaft; 6 treadles. If I add two more treadles I may have to extend the lower lamm on each side. The side by side picture shows the first cleaned treadle and beside it the shuttle race. The slot for the reed at the back of the race is a good example of the workmanship. The top and front of the race are finished and smooth. The slot edge is still as originally cut . I’ll likely sand it of a little more just for the looks as functionally it doesn’t need changing.

Today is the start of a fine period here in the valley so I will be able to get back up on the roof to get as much done before we head up to Townsend for the Fall Guild sale this weekend where I will be volunteering and selling some of my woven and spun items.

Hearthside Loom Restoration

Hearthside Loom Restoration

Clean & Service, Looms, Project, ,

A few months back I received an email from the Townsend Guild saying they had been offered an old loom if anyone wanted it. The photo’s showed a jack loom with 6 shafts that folded to reduce front to back size. While definitely showing the signs of age it mostly looked ‘all there’. I took a quick trip up to Knoxville to pick it up.

It turned out to be a Sears Roebuck Hearthside Loom from the late 1940’s. They were advertised in the SR catalogue between 1946 and 1950. Designed by Nellie Sargent Johnson for Sears and build by the Pope Machine Company in Kankakee, Illinois. It is a 6 shaft jack loom. The loom has a 38″ weaving width and came with a 12 dent reed.

The loom was described by the donating family member as in working condition, but once home it was fairly evident that the loom had not been woven on for some time and was missing a couple of parts that would have prevented any weaving. At the time I didn’t have room to set it up properly so I just unpacked it, checked everything, then covered it with plastic sheeting and put it in a corner of the garage. Move forward a few months and I needed to move some sheet rock from on top of OSB sheets in the garage and given that I now had room in the studio I was able, with help from Anne, to move it into a more permanent place so I can devote some time to restoring it back to clean working order.

The loom has some quite innovative features but overall the quality is not quite at the standard of other loom manufacturers (although I guess there weren’t too many at the time). The first goal is to clean up all the woodwork and assess any damage. I won’t be aiming for ‘brand new’ but rather clean and functional with some display of age. I will also look at minor modifications to improve the working without changing the overall look and feel. I would like to be able to demonstrate with it at the next Fiber Arts Festival in April 2021 so will look into strengthening the base and adding something to enable rolling it.

The loom will be called ‘Senior’. I’ll update this blog with more as work now continues.

During a rainy day today I started removing parts of the loom and sanding off the old varnish and accumulated dirt and dust. The construction is fairly basic and while the design is innovative the construction had left some joins weaker than ideal and it looks like there have been ongoing repairs and moving/addition of screws. The metal hinge connections for the treadles were well rusted up, but I managed to remove them eventually.

The photos are (L-R). The back beam in received condition – typical of most of the loom. The breast beam and beater top after clean up. The treadles in place and off the loom ready for sanding. I have also cleaned up one heddle frame and numbered it so it will go back into the right slots, and the shuttle race which needed some stuck on marker tape removed.

The only serious damage to the loom is water related where I suspect the loom sat in water for a period resulting in a little of the end grain of lower parts softening. The earlier repairs involved adding more screws higher up. I’ll fix it by sandwiching the old wood with a surround of good wood as part of a box frame base to help with overall stability/strength. Most of the screws and bolts will be replaced as I reassemble the loom. I will have to design and make some replacement parts and try to improved the rudimentary (original) cloth and warp beam winding handles. Plenty of work for winter months.

Oak & Fern Bathroom Mat

Looms, Project, Weaving, , ,

The first project to be started in the studio is a bathroom mat/rug for the yet to be completed studio bathroom (currently used as storage for all the bathroom fittings plus a few light fittings that Anne has managed to find at heavy discount). I wove a rug for a customer in Townsend and wound extra warp as I had always intended to weave another rug using the same style of weft yarn. The warp is heavy linen and the weft was a trial of a method to produce ‘random’ coloring through the whole rug. To achieve this I had to ply three cotton warp yarns together first. Two in solid colors and the third in a variegated yarn that contained the two solid colors as well. When woven the colors come and go and form clumps and stripes as colors match from weft shot to weft shot.

‘Pete’ in place on the studio floor. Warp ready to be threaded.

The threading and tie up was straight forward and I was all ready to throw the first shuttle in the Oak & Fern studio. Worthy of a photo (and glass of wine to celebrate).

I wove a few inches using the warp yarn that will eventually be rolled to make a fully reversible binding on the ends. Then on to the actual weaving.

The ply of the yarn makes sloping/diagonal lines appear and disappear – obvious here with the white highlights. The colors in this stripe are the ‘oak’ part of the rug. The new yarn arrived yesterday so I was able to move on to the ‘fern’ stripe. The oak yarn has an ‘S’ twist so the diagonal runs right to left. With the fern yarn it is ‘Z’ twist which runs left to right. This will give a zigzag look as the stripes change.

Each ski shuttle holds enough for two stripes and is a full bobbin worth of yarn. I need to adjust the tension on my Ashford Traditional wheel as this needs a fairly high tension to wind on. The twist goes in fast so the set up has to be fairly free flowing or too much spin ends up in the yarn. I’ll get some pictures as I get into ‘production mode’

In the meantime with another fine day before rain I’m working up on the roof putting on shingles so won’t get to the weaving until tonight.

Macomber Modification

Looms

Way back (10+ years) when I acquired ‘Big Mac’ – a 56″ 8 shaft Macomber Loom – my first job was to clean everything – repaint and resurface, find replacements for missing parts, and one of the biggest jobs was empty years worth of accumulated sunflower seed hulls from the hollow space at the center of the warp beam. They had almost certainly been put there by industrious mice over a period of a few years when the loom was stored in a garage. No real damage to the woodwork or metal parts of the beam.

As the loom was pretty well in use from then on and inside I hadn’t worried about something similar happening, but just this last week I moved the loom from the temporary location in our spare room to the studio space (finally). The build is far from complete, but as the studio portion is clear and clean and covered by a roof we thought a) we should be using it and b) it would finally clear a couple of rooms in the house of their accumulated weaving/spinning/fiber ‘stuff’.

Living surrounded by 18 acres of forest pretty well ensures we have the odd rodent and despite the fact there are occasional sightings of a Black Rat snake in the garage I had to make sure we didn’t end up with a similar stash of sun flower hulls.

In the picture the black cross bracket holds the central axle, with a small triangular gap between each arm. I cut out some thin sheet steel to fit and then tacked them into place. All my other looms are either solid or sealed so now with this fix hopefully the rodent problem is solved, although I’ll be checking.

‘Big Mac’ will be set up to weave the 2020 Christmas towels which if I get underway this month it will be the earliest start yet!! Time will tell.