Weaving Greta
My floor loom has been very lonely with nothing warped on it. A few months back, I purchased a weave kit called Greta on sale from The Woolery. Greta is a Cottolin Towel Kit yielding 4 towels approximately 16" x 24". Cottolin is a combination of cotton and linen which is very absorbent and easy to care for.
I decided to tackle warping the loom front-to-back after reviewing the video Warping Your Loom from Interweave Press.
The kit came with the warp already wound in two bundles. The threads are quite a bit thinner than I have used in the past so it was tricky to keep every strand separated.
Even though the pattern comes with four patterns - plain weave, twill, broken twill, and herringbone or goose eye, I decided to thread the heddles consecutively 1.2.3.4. I can weave three of the patterns with this configuration.
It took quite a bit of time but I finally got the loom warped. I think it was easier warping front-to-back with the video right in front of me.
Here is the warp on the loom.
I really liked the method used to tie the front beam. My bar is metal so it was quite a bit heavier so I had to supplement additional tie ups and then tighten them up later. The tension is exactly even.
I also wound up a bunch of bobbins for my boat shuttle so everything is ready to weave.
I started the weaving and found it very easy, however I seemed to be having a problem catching the end thread. Not sure why this is, but I missed both edges. The instructions stated to try to start from the other side, but that didn't work either.
I'm doing a twill here for the first one. Maybe even the second one and changing to the broken twill for the next two by just changing the treadle tie up. It is the first time I attempted that too!
I got a reply from a reader that I'm copying here with some advice on my weaving.
ReplyDeleteYou may have heard by now, but if not. One way is to use a floating selvedge - This is an extra thread on each side of the warp -they do not go through the heddles and are often weighted separately(as in you can use a small container - film canisters were once popular pill bottles work too) wrap the extra yarn and put it in the container leaving a wrap or two on the outside and lastly under the snap on lid to hold it. When you weave you go over the floating thread as you enter the shuttle and exit under the one on the other side. The warp will always be caught.
You said you tried switching sides I have heard to enter on the even side (outside thread on shaft 2, 4 etc. and the other side ends on an odd thread so the outside threads will alternate each time. Doesn\'t always work because it depends on threading - also won\'t work if the twill reverses. I think the floating selvedge is easier.