Monday, April 7, 2008

RECENT COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS

Meg in Nelson had this request:

"Oh, do please confirm that it happens with wool also. This is almost a every-warp occurrence for me, and I had thought I was the only one who managed to somehow have something like this happen!!"

Leigh left this comment:

"Interesting that this is more common than one would think! It only first happened to me since I started weaving on my Glimakra. I thought I had done something really dunce headed. It's happened more than once; with cotton warp. So there's a comfort in knowing it isn't that uncommon and that there is a logical way to deal with it."

What I thought invaluable about these two comments was their having learned that they are not alone! Weavers can be so isolated. The danger of isolation is diminishing lack of perspective. That is not good.

And I as well learned that silk is not the only culprit here!

I thank Meg and Leigh for their comments.

A QUESTION ON WEIGHTS

And Isabelle asked what I use for warp weights. Here is a picture of one of them.



These are two I-don't-know-what-they-are-called that I use for weights. The one to the right is heavier than the lower one. I have hooked them together because I need all that weight on one bout of silk.

I used six of these grouped weights on my warp, one for each bout. The result is that the silk bouts, as I wind them onto the back beam, are actually at higher tension than they will be when I weave the warp off.

You can get them at any builder's supply. Take the picture in and ask a clerk. Or just wander around Lowe's or Home Depot (one of my favorite pastimes!)

BOUTS

Meg, by the way, caught the double-entendre in the word bout: the word is used in the world of fighting as well. No further comment..............(grin!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the picture - way more compact than water bottles... Isabelle

Janice said...

I'm also relieved to hear that other people have that problem with the yarn twisting on itself. I once had to cut off 8 to 10 yards of warp that had twisted so badly I couldn't weave it. Though some of the problem may have been faulty warping, I came to see that the yarn itself was overtwisted because after it was off the loom, I untwisted it, lay it down, and it twisted right back up again. Peg is so right that it's good to be able to hear these problems from other weavers so we don't keep trying to correct problems that aren't really our fault. And it's good to hear how to correct those problems that are.