BEATING THE HANDSPUN

Posted by Peg in South Carolina 

When I beat, I am used to slamming the beater into the fell.  Indeed, I have equipped this beater with a weight to take some of the work off my arms.  Adding the weight really goes back to my early years of weaving rugs.  I keep the weight on because it helps very much in beating my fine silk pieces.

But this is neither a rug nor a 60/2 silk piece.  Instead of using the beater to beat the weft into the fell, I use it to gently place the weft where it needs to be.  This is a two-step process for me:

1. I raise the shed, throw the weft, and bring the beater a couple of inches away  from the fell.

2. I change to the next shed and carefully bring the beater towards me to place the weft where my eye tells me it needs to be.

Actually, “bringing the beater towards me” is usually not quite accurate.  Because the beater is generally tipping more or less towards me (and remember that the beater is weighted), I am actually holding the beater away from the fell and then allowing it to go to the place I want it to go by resisting the force its weight is trying to exert.

"Beating the Handspun” was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on December 7, 2009. ©2009 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.