New Addition to the Collection

Looms are keeping me busy.  I realized I started this post quite a while ago, sometime in late winter, and never finished it.

I recently had an opportunity to add a very large loom to my studio. I don't recall how I came across the Craig's List posting, but it was only three hours away. After checking with the seller and a couple others familiar with the Bexell Cranbrook countermarche or counterbalance looms, I found it could be upgraded to an 8-shaft loom, so I decided to make the purchase.

Near the end of February, my daughter Carolyn and I collapsed the stow-and-go seats in the van and took off for Midland, Michigan to meet my new loom and former owner Maryanne.

Here is Maryanne saying goodbye.

Here is a photo of how it is supposed to look.

On that day, though, it was just a pile of lumber, strings and chains in the back of the van.  We really had to squeeze to get the two side pieces diagonally in through the back hatch, but we were successful.

A bonus with the purchase were the extra reeds, shuttles, rug yarn, and warping reel.

Bob was a good sport and helped cart all the pieces upstairs above my studio and then did most of the assembly with my assistance.

See that beater?  It was designed for making tight rugs.  It is heavy!

It is a great loom for assembling.  Pegs and no bolts make is so easy.

Above Bob's head in the foreground is the jack mechanism for the countermarche.  There is definitely room to add four more shafts.  We just need to go purchase the hardwood.  We will need to cut eight more jacks, four treadles, eight shaft bars, four lower lamms and four upper lamms.  When I do the additions, I will probably use Texsolv cord instead of chains for all the tie-ups.

This baby is ready to warp!

I decided to try and use the four yard warp that was still on the warp beam.  It was a bit tangled, so I got a bit of weight on it and started dangling it down the stairway to get it straightened.

There was no cross, so here I am inserting a lease stick into the warp at the back.  It was a pretty warp, with lots of colors, so it was worth trying to save.  Since every two warp threads were a different color, it was pretty easy to get the cross back onto the lease sticks.

Barbell weights work nicely to add tension to the warp when winding onto the warp beam.  It went on the loom quickly.

I started the first rug and then I let Carolyn take over.  This was her first weaving experience, and she took to it right away.

She had made a quilt from her fiance (now husband) Jeremy's old tee-shirts and we cut the scraps into strips for the rugs.

Even her kitties get a rug for under their food dishes.  A good use for the short bit of warp remaining.

By the end of March, we took the rugs off the loom.

The rugs now live in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and look very nice in Carolyn and Jeremy's kitchen.

I removed two rugs off the looms today.  One was on Fanny, and the other on the Weaver's Delight.  Both were woven with the same fabrics.  I started cleaning out the old fabric stash, and found some polyester double-knit, that I already had cut into strips.  The rug on the left was woven first, on Fanny.  I had leftover strips after completing the first one, so evaluated how many strips I had left, and started designing the next rug.

The rug at right was woven on the Weaver's Delight.  I decided not to unweave and fix the two sleying errors.  I like how different the rugs can be with different colored warp and weave structure.  The above rug was threaded in a twill, and the one on the right was plain weave, threaded in a log cabin rug pattern.  I doubled the warp threads in the rust colored stripes, but the rest are threaded 12 epi.

I prepare for hemming my rugs in a couple different ways.  When I finished weaving the rug on Fanny, I spread some Tacky Glue on the last 2-3 rows of weft, and let it dry.  If you click on the photo, you can probably see it.  After the glue is dry, I can cut the rug off without worrying about it unraveling.  If I am going to immediately start weaving the next rug, I wouldn't use the glue, and would just weave a few extra rows of hem, to allow for unraveling.

I did that with the other rug, and then ran it through the serger to secure the last 2-3 weft rows.

I don't worry about the little bit of glue that gets folded into the hem.  It is water soluble, so will eventually wash out.

I fold the second part of the hem so it partially covers the first fabric pick.

I don't use sewing pins.  I have been poked too many times, so I switched to clothes pins.  Avoid buying them from the dollar store, because the spring isn't strong enough.  I found mine in my local grocery store.

Five clothes pins on each hem is plenty.  I start my hem by closing up the end, turn and stitch the hem, then close the other end.  It helps to stretch the hem while stitching.  I don't use a home machine for the hems, because I own an industrial upholstery machine.  If you have to use a home sewing machine, follow my tips to avoid breaking needles while sewing heavy fabric.  It was published on my blog on 10-20-11.

I took a little time last night and this morning to fix the sleying errors, using one of my current favorite tools.  It is a slick little sleying hook that I picked up this past spring while on my trip to go get my Weaver's Delight loom.  The blade is super thin, but strong.  I have caught myself with the hook a few times, when I wasn't being careful, and it can draw blood!

The reed hook is available from The Woolgatherers, in Wisconsin.  I'm glad that Sara, the owner, suggested it. 

Roll Out the Rugs!

Here is the roll of rugs fresh off the Weaver's Delight, and stretching down the upstairs hallway.  I'm taking the photo from one bedroom, and Bob is in the one at the end of the hall.  I haven't taken a measurement of them yet.  They turned out better than I expected, and the selvedges are great.

The roll from the other end.

Close-up of the first rug.

Close-up of the second rug.

The short rug for our bathroom by the shower.

The last rug.  Strips of four neutral colors, one with flowers and leaves that give the random splashes of color.

Sample using some of the left over weft, and the blue is blue jean strips.  About 3/4" wide is just about right for the strips.  The last little bit is just using some of my hem yarns.  Just a sample, or maybe I will use it on the table for setting hot dishes on it.

The excitement of getting them off the loom has worn me out!  Bed, here I come.

More Rugs

I have mixed feelings about weaving rugs.  They weave fast if there isn't any variation to them, but I seem to be most attracted to the ones with stripes or more detail.  There is such a lot of prep work that goes into a nice rug, that it usually takes longer than weaving it.  Prepping is a lot of hard work, and some can be hard on the body.  My hands are getting pretty sore, so I may soon have to take a break and get back to finer weaving with just yarn.

Before I got the Weaver's Delight up and running, I put a warp on Fanny. This one ended up with stripes in both directions.  I was trying to use up some horrible old polyester doubleknit that I inherited.  The warp will definitely wear out before the weft does!  The majority of the rug is of a tan, gray, and white striped fabric cut about an inch wide.  The narrower accent stripes are navy blue and burgundy strips.  I cut them 1/2" wide and doubled them since these particular knits were kind of stiff.  They packed in better that way.  The red was twisted with the navy to give a little accent color.  This rug is getting close to being finished.  I haven't decided what will be next, but it may be one fabric, or one color with a twill variation.  Denim could be a possibility if my hands and wrists hold up to the rotary cutting.

I ran into a little difficulty today weaving this small rug.  This is the third rug I have made on the Weaver's Delight, and the manual warned about checking the bolts for tightness.  Things started to loosen up, and suddenly I couldn't make anything move.  Being new to the loom, it took me a bit of looking before I figured the trouble was with the "A" part needing to be scooted a little to the left, toward the "B" part.  I was able to complete the rug, but it started doing it again just as I was finishing the hem.  I will get back to it tomorrow, in the daylight, when I can see what I'm doing. 

Most of the rugs I am weaving are probably going to go up for sale.  Our church regularly goes on a mission trip to Kentucky every year, and they need to raise the funds for any repair projects they sign up to do.  Hopefully, I will have a stack of rugs before next years trip. 

I actually wove this rug for us.  We needed a small rug by the tub/shower that wouldn't cover the heat register on the floor.  The light colored fabric is a recycled mattress ticking.  I like how the striped fabric looks when woven.  The rest of the fabrics are from my large stash, chosen to match the colors in the shower curtain.  I'm determined to gradually whittle away at the many boxes of fabric upstairs in my studio.

The 8 1/2 yards of warp that I put on the WD is quickly coming to an end.  I will probably get one or two more rugs from it, and then I will probably try the plain weave cams on the next warp.