WEAVEIT LOOM DRIVER

Ruth wanted to know exactly what steps were “counted” and how long the warp was in the 15-20 minutes to beam the warp. So the ends weren’t fitted neatly into the dividers, though I have some interesting ideas for how this might be managed if necessary. The warp that went with those photos wasn’t beamed into the sections it was beamed using the sectional beam as you would a plain beam (ignoring the dividers). I’d love to see some photos of the warp going on and actually staying in the beam sections. Also, plainweave most closely approximates my home weaving, since I have a computer-driven loom.) (Why am I weaving so much plainweave, since I love to dabble in complex structures? It’s to simplify learning the ergonomics: having to remember a treadling pattern distracts me from focusing on my body, “reading” the movements of weaving and seeing how one flows (or doesn’t) into another. This sounds absolutely delightful, and a good opportunity to practice ergonomic weaving on plainweave. Then we’re going to weave with a variety of wefts, including a highly twisted singles, a Lycra yarn, a wool yarn (etc.) just to see what happens. I wanted to play around with differential shrinkage and collapse weaves (basically anything that does dramatic things when it hits the water, since Laura is the expert on wet-finishing), and Laura has two new-to-her Lycra yarns in the studio, so we’re going to warp up the loom with those two yarns and some 12/2 cotton, 1-inch stripes of the two yarns alternating with 1/2-inch stripes of the cotton. Tomorrow we’re going to have some fun sampling. LOL! I’m definitely not going to replace that gorgeous Alencon lace with my beginner attempts at bobbin lace, but maybe an edging around the bottom of the dress? Also thinking about how I can fit bobbin lace into the dress. I botched one segment of the first bookmark (I think it was my second bobbin lace motif ever, so I have some excuse) but the rest of it looks GREAT! I’m very happy. I will post photos of the bookmarks tomorrow, I’m hoping to finish the other one tomorrow morning, early, and be able to post photos of both at once.

– the purpose of this warp was purely to concentrate on ergonomics, technique, and get the “feel” of weaving smoothly and rhythmically. I also wasn’t making any particular attempt at good selvedges, etc. (Don’t look too impressed about the warp it was a plainweave sett at 20 epi, with a relatively thick weft. (Sandra, if you’re reading this, can you tell me whether this can be done in WeaveIt Pro?)Īt any rate, I wove off a 5-yard warp today, along with finishing up my first bobbin lace bookmark and starting a new bobbin lace bookmark with some different stitches Laura’s been showing me. And my laptop just died so I have no access to anything right now.

WEAVEIT LOOM DRIVER

This makes perfect sense to me, but I might have to purchase the Fiberworks PCW AVL loom driver to do it – I use WeaveIt Pro to drive my loom and I’m not sure whether it has the appropriate setting. Pretty hefty savings, especially if my speed improves further.Īnother piece of advice Laura gave me was to have the AVL switch sheds when the shed is open rather than when it’s closed. Considering that I was estimating the 20 yards of dress fabric at 60 ppi to be about 43,200 throws of the shuttle, that could be 21,600 seconds saved over the course of the weave, or about 6 hours of weaving time.

Not really a fair comparison considering that I had to double-beat each pick to clear the shed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this week of study takes half a second per pick (or more!) off my weaving speed. This is considerably faster than my previous speed – for example, the dress fabric was weaving up at about 2.75 seconds per pick. I timed myself this morning, out of curiosity: 28 picks took about 45 seconds, so I’m weaving at about 1.6 seconds/pick (plainweave on a treadle loom, 20″ wide warp).

Weaveit loom