12 shaft twill

Here's a peek at what is on my mechanical dobby loom right now. This is the first time I've ever tried to use all 12 shafts. The most complicated pattern I've done before has been 8 shafts. This was a bit tricky for me to get all warped up, but now that I have it going I love it!!

This is a twill, taken from the weaving pattern on this page: http://weeverwoman.blogspot.ca/2011/07/i-havent-fallen-off-planet-i-had-week.html . I am weaving it tromp as writ, which means I treadle it in the same pattern that I threaded it. I'm using 8/2 unmercerized UKI cotton as the warp, and 10/2 mercerized Valley cotton as the weft. I've got enough warp on here for about a dozen hand towels, and I'm having fun making each one a different color. Here's the same thing, but in red, and looking from the back of the loom so you can see all the shafts.

I'm done with the red towel, and almost done with the green. Hmmmmm.... I'm looking at my yarn stash, and trying to decide on what color strikes my fancy for the next one. I think I'm going to end up making the whole rainbow, plus some!

Not quite Harry Potter

Mistress has given Dobby a sock!!!

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

12 shaft fancy twill on the dobby loom

Woo Hoo!! It is working!!! This has been an adventure. This is only the second time I've used the dobby loom--and the first was years ago, and I forgot most of the details between then and now. And, this is the first time I've ever woven something with a 12 shaft pattern. 8 has been my limit up until now. It took a bit to get this one on the loom, but I'm really pleased with the way it is turning out. This is 8/2 unmercerized UKI cotton, and the threading draft is from here: http://weeverwoman.blogspot.ca/2011/07/i-havent-fallen-off-planet-i-had-week.html . I set it up tromp as writ, rather than the extended pattern that she shows.

I'm thinking my pattern is a little elongated. I kind of like it, but I'd also like to see what happens if I use 10/2 weft instead of the matching 8/2 that I'm using here for the test. I've got quite a few lovely colors of 10/2 left over from making baby wraps. Hmmm... what to use...

I've got enough warp on here for I think a dozen tea towels. I'll keep a couple, and a couple will go to my physical therapist as a thank you gift for getting my shoulder back into weaving shape.

More pictures to come as the weaving progresses!

Programming the mechanical dobby loom

How did I spend Superbowl Sunday? Sitting around laughing with friends and family, enjoying their enjoyment of the game, and programming my loom.

These are bars for the dobby loom. When you're weaving, you get the pattern by raising up some but not all of the warp threads, and throwing the shuttle with the weft thread across the loom in the space between the raised and stationary threads. (That is one 'pick'.) Then, you change which threads are up, and throw the shuttle back again for another pick. On my usual loom, I choose which threads to raise up by stepping on the various treadles under the loom. On the dobby loom, I pre-program in the pattern. Each wooden bar here represents the choice of which threads to raise for one pick. It was kind of time consuming to put all those pegs in the right spots (no peg for raise a shaft, peg for leave it down), but it will make the weaving go much easier! I won't have to remember where I am in the 48 pick repeat, because I've already told the loom what I want to have happen.

Christmas on the Dobby loom

I think at this point it is safe to post pictures of this project, because all the recipients should have received their Christmas present by now. I hope!

Some time back, I got a new-to-me dobby loom. I decided I was going to start it up for Christmas this year, and each of my relatives on my side of the family was going to receive a matching hand-woven napkin in Christmas colors. I chose an extended point twill pattern out of the book "8,12...20" (p 64; Fig 134), and did my figuring. I ended up using red and green 8/2 unmercerized cotton set at 22 epi for the warp, and white 10/2 mercerized cotton for the weft.


It was a bit of a learning curve to get the dobby loom warped up. I am used to warping front to back with sticks to separate the warp. The dobby is set up with a raddle in back, and recommends warping extra tightly with paper to separate the warp layers. I eventually got it.




Here is a shot of the front of the loom, with the pattern started. I had to sample for a couple of inches, because when I made the pattern I had some floats that were too long. I also had the warp set too closely on the first try, and had to fiddle with that. I eventually got the pattern dialed in.





My loom wraps the finished fabric right around the front beam, which is new to me. I put about 11 yards of warp on the loom. After cutting off a batch because I had the set too close and had to re-sley, and accounting for loom waste and take up, I still had over 9 yards of finished fabric wound around the beam when I was done. I don't think I could fit much more without it interfering with the weaving process.






I had a hard time deciding which side of the finished fabric I liked more!








And here is the finished project: 15 Christmas napkins. Finished size after hemming was 17 1/2 inches square.



I've decided I really like the dobby. The weaving was simple, once I got it set up properly. Now, to figure out the next project...

Learning to use the dobby loom...sort of

I've been trying to get my new-to-me dobby loom warped up for the first time. It is an older AVL 12 harness loom, with a mechanical dobby set up. And I think today I have made just about every mistake in the book.

Over the past few days, I managed to get the warp on the back beam, and threaded the heddles. Today I sleyed the reed, tied on the front beam, and started teaching myself how to peg a dobby pattern. Instead of lifting the various harnesses via foot treadles, the dobby loom has a mechanism that lets you pre-set your pattern through a series of bars and pegs. First thing I had to do was make a pegging pattern.

I'm using a fancy point twill pattern in the threading, and figured I could just tromp as writ for the weft. I figured and figured, and came up with something that I thought might work. Then I started pegging the dobby bars.




I got the whole thing done, and tried to install the chain onto the loom. Um...and tried again. And again. And then figured out that I had put every one of those pegs on the wrong side of the bars. See? I put them coming out of the narrow side of the bars. Wrong. They were supposed to come out of the wide side.














So I took all the pegs out, and screwed them back in on the correct side this time. After that, the chain went in to the loom, slick as a whistle.



Ah ha! I fiddled with the tension of the warp (that is going to take some figuring out still), and started weaving. It worked! Um....sort of. Something wasn't right. After about an inch, I figured out that I had installed the dobby chain upside down. So I took it out, flipped it around, and tried again. Much better.

Now I wove an inch or so...and found that there were warp threads that floated over more than 7 weft threads. For a serviceable cloth, those floats are way too long. They'd snag. I went back to my pegging pattern, and looked for where the trouble spots were. Then the dobby chain came back off again, and I changed the pegging in those spots. Back on the loom, and try again. Now I had weft floats that were too long. One more time back to the graph paper, another change in pegging, and I had the pattern pretty well close.

Except...I was getting elongated rectangles when I had been aiming for a square pattern. Even when I got the tension mostly cranked up, it was still elongated. Which meant that I had the warp crammed too close together.

I looked at it...and looked at it...and took a scissors to my warp. Back to figuring out my math. Now I'm in the process of re-sleying the warp into a different reed, spreading it out a bit more.

Crossing my fingers that it will work this time. At least I have a better idea of what I'm doing this time around. But it was heartbreaking to cut away hours of work!

Maybe tomorrow will go smoother. I hope. It can't be much worse than today...can it??