Friday, May 31, 2024

Dressing the Glimakra B2F Step 6: Checking the Shed, Weaving a Header

Continued from Dressing the Glimakra B2F Step 5: Tying Up the Lamms & Treadles

Remove the countermarch locking pins

The locking pins keep the jacks (and everything else) from moving.

The shafts shouldn't drop more than slightly.

Evaluate the shed

This involves weaving a couple shots and then pressing each treadle in turn to check the levelness of the bottom of the shed. 

Adjustments needed on both bottom and top

Fortunately, I took good notes on adjusting the shed the first time I set up the Glimakra. That post is here. Plus, I have Joanne Hall's Tying Up the Countermarch Loom (book review here). The summary of the process as follows.

All adjustments to a countermarch loom start at the top. 
  • With locking pins in place, check:
    • That the shafts are centered to the loom. 
    • That the warp runs through the center of the heddle eyes. If it doesn't, then the shafts need to be raised or lowered accordingly by adjusting the cord on the anchor pins on the jacks at the top of the countermarch.
    • That the beater height allows the shed to run through the middle of the reed.
    • That the lamms are level with one another. Adjust if necessary.
  • Remove the locking pins
    • Depress each treadle in turn and examine the shed. 
    • If all the warp ends are level, that's it.
    • If some of them are above or below the others, make notes of which shaft they are on.
To adjust the shed, replace the countermarch locking pins.
  • To adjust the bottom threads of the shed:
    • Start by adjusting treadle cords at the upper lamms. Use your notes.
    • For shafts with warp threads that are too high, shorten the treadle ties.
    • For shafts with warp ends that are below the shed, lengthen the treadle ties.
    • Remove the locking pins and check again. Make more adjustments needed.
  • To adjust the top of the shed:
    • Adjust the treadle cords at the lower lamms, using your list.
    • For threads that run too high, lengthen the treadle ties.
    • For threads that run too low, shorten the treadle ties.
    • Recheck and repeat if needed.
    • Note that this is opposite of what was done with the upper lamms.

Note: Treadles don't have to be even in height.

Weave the header

Couldn't help but be a little nervous. Did I get my shed adjustments right? Did I make any threading mistakes? I caught a few when I sleyed the reed. Did I get the tension even across the warp? I'll find out now!


Things to check:
  • Shed: good
  • Treadle height: comfortable
  • Fell line: straight
  • Threading errors: the only "error" turned out to be a dropped treadle cord
  • The ski shuttle worked well

Next time should go more quickly. For one thing, the shafts and lamms should need no further adjustment in the future. Plus, with this warp, I spent a lot of time researching, reading, re-reading, and comparing notes from various sources. For future reference, I have this blog series to refer to. 

And with that, I'm ready to weave.

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Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Taking My Ashford for a Spin


My Ashford Tradtional is my first spinning wheel. No wait. Actually, my first spinning wheel was a Babe Production Wheel. This is an inexpensive PVC spinning wheel, which was all I could afford at the time. That link will take you to its maker's website. I got a lot of friendly teasing about it at spinning group, but I didn't care. I had a wheel and I was spinning! Later, I took it to spinning demonstrations. I put a length of commercial acrylic yarn on the bobbin and invited interested folk to give it a try. It was a great teaching tool.

Anyway, the Ashford was my first "real" spinning wheel, although later on I mostly used my Kromski Minstrel because its slightly more portable. When Goatldi sent me that lovely Shetland roving . . .


. . . I looked first to my Kromski, but all it's bobbins are full (of ancient singles, which I wasn't ready to deal with). So, I dug around in my spinning equipment drawer and found some empty bobbins for the Ashford. I got it out, dusted it off, and did a quick review on its maintenance. I had to replace the drive band and give it a good oiling, but other than that, it was ready to go!

After a little practice treadling, I secured some of the roving to the leader and cautiously began to spin. I was pleased that my hands remembered what to do. I had forgotten how much I love this. 


Practice is still in order, but with a nudge from Goatldi, I'm spinning again!


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Monday, May 27, 2024

Dressing the Glimakra B2F Step 5: Tying Up the Lamms & Treadles

Continued from Dressing the Glimakra B2F Step 4: Threading, Sleying, Lashing On 

Tying up the treadles of a countermarch is a big job. The popular jack loom requires only tying up the shafts that rise. With my Schacht Mighty Wolf, treadle tie-up was just a matter of sliding the required shaft cords into the slot on the appropriate treadle. (There's a photo at the top of this post.)

A countermarch, on the other hand, engages all shafts; some rise and the other sink. That means all treadles have to be connected to all shafts. An 8-shaft loom like mine has 8 shafts times 10 treadles. So 80 individual cords need to be attached to the treadles. 

I've got three ways to tie up the treadles of a countermarch loom. Two I've tried, and one I plan to try soon. I'll update this post then.

Preliminary steps

  • Check position of warp
    • Should be centered in the reed and heddle eyes
    • Adjust shafts and beater height as necessary
  • Check the lamms*
    • Should be level and even in height.
    • Adjust if necessary

* Because this is my first warp after re-assembling the loom, tweaking the lamm tie-up and shaft placement should be a one-time job. Once set, future warps shouldn't need it.

The tie-up draft
Example tie-up draft for a countermarch loom

Reading the draft
  • Rows represent the shafts with the bottom being #1. The top row is shaft #8
  • Columns represent the treadles.
  • Xs and Os represent which shafts rise and which shafts sink.
  • Memory tricks for reading CM drafts
    • X as in X marks the spot (to sink the shovel)
    • O are shaped like bubbles which rise

Converting a draft

Most sources will tell you if it's a rising or sinking shed loom draft. If they don't, it's likely a rising shed draft because most American weavers have rising shed (jack) looms. You can make your own CM tie-up draft on graph paper.
  • Fill in the rising shaft squares on the graph with Os.
  • Fill in the remaining graph squares with Xs.
For a sinking shed tie-up (counterbalance loom) 
  • Fill in the sinkng shaft squares on the graph with Xs.
  • Fill in the remaining graph squares with Os.


Tying up the lamms

The lamms are the levers that control whether the shafts rise or sink.

Upper lamms
  • The shorter set of lamms
  • Function to lower the shafts
  • Memory aid: smaller sink
  • Designated by an X on the tie-up draft

 Lower lamms

  • The longer set of lamms
  • Function to raise the shafts
  • Memory aid: lower lift  
  • Designated by an O (or blank) on the tie-up draft
With draft in hand, I start by putting anchor pegs in the holes that don't need to be tied up. So on the upper lamms, I put pegs in the Os. On the lower lamms, I put pegs in the Xs. Then all I need to do is to put the lamm ties in the empty holes.

Tip: a dab of glue on the ends of the ties stiffens them so that it's easier to thread them through the lamms and treadles.

It looks like this when I'm done.

I double check the tie-up when I drop the treadle cords down in front of the each corresponding lower lamm. Each cord should have an empty lamm hole directly beneath it.

Treadle tie-up method 1: traditional

The cords are secured on the bottom of the treadle, with each lamm tie inserted through the corresponding hole in the treadle. 

Loom set-up

Treadles lifted at a height of 6 - 8 inches.

Start with the ties near the back of the loom, which need to be tightest. This is because the angle of the pressed treadle is narrowest at the back of the loom, but sharpest at the front of the loom. Hence more treadle cord is required.

Done. Distance between moving parts (treadles, lamms, & shafts) should be equally spaced.

Advantage to method 1

  • Carries on the tradition of countermarch looms. (Not sure if that's an actual advantage, but I had to think of something positive to say.)

Disadvantages

  • Tie-up for lamms and treadles must be changed for each new draft
  • Time consuming
  • Tiring on the back
  • Poking the pegs of the anchor pins into the underside of the treadles must be done by touch.
  • Requires patience

Method 2: skeleton tie-up

Shortly after I got my Glimakra, I started using a skeleton tie-up. Like the table loom, this ties the shafts to their own treadles, so that more than one treadle may need to be engaged depending on the lift work. 

8-shaft skeleton tie-up for a countermarch loom.
O = rising shafts, X = sinking shafts. Details here.

Advantage to method 2
  • Don't have to re-tie the lamms and treadles again
Disadvantage
  • Footwork is more complicated

Method 3: Tie-up from the top of the lamms

This method was described in the October 2017 issue of Complex Weavers Journal. I found several blog posts and videos on it, and made a blog series about it:

Next time I warp the loom, I'll do a step-by-step on tying up the treadles to the lamms from the top.

© 2024 by Leigh at Leigh's Fiber Journal
Dressing the Glimakra B2F Step 6: Checking the Shed, Weaving a Header
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Friday, May 24, 2024

Dressing the Glimakra B2F Step 4: Threading, Sleying, Lashing On

1. Prepare the loom for threading the heddles.

With a large loom, the important thing is to be comfortable. To accommodate heddle threading, I removed the breast and and knee beams. Then I had room to place a chair closer to the heddles.

I'll probably replace the chair with a slightly shorter stool next time.

This next idea I found on Peggy Osterkamp's blog, Threading the Loom Without Mistakes. She credits Jim Ahrens for teaching her this trick. 

A stick, such as an apron rod or broom handle, is hung from the castle. The warp (coming from the warp beam) is draped over the stick as you see below.


Lease sticks are placed in the threading cross and secured so that the cross hangs behind the shafts and easily accessible for threading. You can see a nice diagram at Peggy's blog (link above).

It just a matter of cutting the bottom warp loops to separate the ends and then picking the next one from the cross, threading as you go across the warp.

2. Threading the heddles

With a little experimentation, I found that the warp needs to hang in length to about the top of the lower lamms.

With this length I could easily pull bundles of warp ends through to cut the loop on the bottom from the warping board.

It also gave me enough length to secure the warp in the threaded heddles with a slip knot.


3. Sleying the reed. 

In the beater or not? I chose to lay the reed flat across support sticks. 
  1. Put the breast and knee beams back in place.
  2. Remove lease sticks and holder
  3. Lay the reed horizontally on support sticks
The set-up

This was a good time to double/triple check my threading.

Then the beater is put back on and the reed secured.

4. Lashing the warp onto the front apron rod.

I think tying the warp onto the apron rod is the more common practice, but I like to lash the warp to the front apron rod. I think it's easier to tension it this way. Weaver's preference. I have a photo tutorial here ⇢ How To Lash On a Warp.

The first time I warped this loom I didn't go behind the knee beam so that there was no room for my knees under the warp!

Photo from Warping the Glimakra: The 3 Duhs

I remembered this time.

Tips:
  • The lashing cord needs to be smooth and 9-10 times the width of the warp.
  • No knots in the cord (one continuous length).
 
Dressing the Glimakra B2F Step 5: Tying Up the Lamms & Treadles
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Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Like Christmas in May

My dear friend and weaving enabler Goatldi (from New Life on the Farm New Beginnings blog), told me she was doing some clean up of her yarn stash - would I be interested in anything? I said, surprise me! Yesterday, all this arrived . . .

Colors and sizes that will enhance my stash!

ALSO, in the box I found this . . .


Some of her gorgeous homegrown Shetland roving. It is sooo soft. Just luscious. 

Now, I'm anxious to dust off one of my two spinning wheels. The bobbins for the Kromski are all full, but I rummaged around and found two empties for my Ashford Traditional. So I'm going to need to tune it up and give it a spin. I wonder if spinning is like riding a bicycle? Something one never forgets?


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