ADDING HEDDLES

Posted by Peg in South Carolina

I was at the last block.  So close to being done.  I pulled out the 8 heddles for the first two units.  Or at least I tried to.  I needed two heddles from the second shaft.  There were no heddles on the second shaft.

Yes, I had counted everything out before I started theading.  Added several hundred heddles.  I knew how many heddles I needed on each shaft.  Even so, I allowed for many more than I needed on both sides of the middle.

What went wrong?  I have no idea. But it had to be done.  There was no help for it.

Here is a photo of the situation I had to deal with. The black arrow points to the bottom of the heddle frame held in place by that devilish metal device that goes into the hole of that frame.  There is a similar fiendish metal device at the top of the frame.

You have to pull that device either backwards or forwards (depending on its location vis-a-vis the shaft) to slip it out of the hole and so release the shaft.  Then you get to reverse the process in order to reattach the shaft.  This is not fun. Especially working in such close quarters.

So, with the help of a screw driver for leverage, I pulled 15 heddles off the first shaft and put them on the second shaft.  The screw driver saved my fingers.

Having added the heddles,  I threaded the last block. 

I went to check the threading.  Grouped between two heddles were 10 empty heddles on shaft one.  This block used no heddles on shaft one.  Did I mention that they were grouped between two heddles in the first unit I threaded?  Well, of course.  Why not? 

I have carefully pulled all those fine silk threads—threads that tangle if I breathe too hard but fortunately the humidity in the house is 70% (I haven’t turned on the air conditioning yet) so the tangles were fairly easily untangled.  They now sit waiting to be threaded.

I am NOT done threading.  Do you think I am a wee bit upset?

Related Posts: 
Cutting a Wire Heddle off the Shaft
I Ought Not to be a Weaver

“Adding Heddles”  was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on June 14, 2010. ©2010 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina.