Over the holiday break I spent two days warping the loom that sits in the library at the house in Rowe.  I learned a lot.

I first went out to the wood shop and made myself a raddle and a thread cone holder.  It cost about $4 in materials, saved me about $70 more or less.

I wound a warp of various colors for the first time.  Everything went along beautifully until I slayed the reed and realized that the left side of the warp threads were a good 2 inches shorter than the right.  Uh oh.  I figured I would just see what it would do since I hadn’t used this loom before and figured if nothing else I’d find out what kind of issues it has (there are sure to be some right?).  After tying the warp to the front I opened one of the sheds to find that the tension on the left side was too loose and it barely opened.

This was a long warp so I’m thinking it may not have been beamed tight enough or  I wound it unevenly.  Honestly I think the the loom was not square as well as sitting on an extraordinarily crooked floor.  After looking at the problem and stepping back from the loom I could see that the front left corner was lower than the rest so the whole loom was twisted.  Hmmmmm.  I walked away.

I know I have to rewarp the loom.  I also have to replace the harness cables.  The ones on the loom now are leather, dried out and all different lengths, those will be ordered this week.  When they arrive I will replace them and rework the whole loom to make sure it is square.  Then I will move it into another room where the floor is more level and start over again.

I have to say that this is really one of my favorite parts of the whole weaving thing.  So many things can go wrong but it all has to do with the mechanics.  If I can get the machine to do what it’s supposed to do then the only problems I will have will be my own doing – miscount, tension, or a hundred other mistakes that I don’t know about yet.  This is quite the adventure.