Dumb Weaving Tricks

Yesterday I mentioned a funny weaving story (at least it's funny now.) With two exceptions, I've always warped my loom from front to back. A few weeks ago, I was using a fine bumpy yarn for the warp and decided it would work better back to front. There are two ways to beam the warp on - one with the warp going through to the front of the loom and the other with both you and the warp at the back of the loom. I like the second way better because you don't have to get up all the time and I think it makes for a better warp - you wind one turn and then pull on sections of the warp to tighten them.

But, when you do it that way, the warp goes over the back beam backwards (I don't have pictures of this part, but you tie the warp onto the apron then bring it trough the inside of the back beam and through the raddle to the back of the loom.) After beaming on you have to remember to bring the other end of the warp around the back beam before threading the heddles. Well, I was so happy with the ease of beaming on that I just forgot about that part until after I had the heddles threaded and the reed sleyed. On my Schacht loom, this wouldn't be a huge problem because the back beam lifts off and I could have just moved it under the warp and put it back on and it would have been fixed. But on my Macomber loom, the back beam is screwed on and glued - it doesn't go anywhere.

So, what to do? Fortunately, it wasn't a really wide warp and I had a section of an old beam laying around (doesn't everyone have a spare beam?). With clamps and spacers, I essentially made a new back beam inside the real one, so that I could get a proper shed. Here's my Rube Goldberg loom:


And, if you think this is one of those mistakes that are so bad that you'll only make them once, you'd be wrong ;-) I did the same thing on the very next warp! Fortunately that one was on the Schacht loom and I just fixed it by removing the back beam and slipping it under the warp before putting it back on. Despite all of this, I think I've been converted to warping back to front for most things.

Next time, I'll post a bit on crackle and what I have on the loom now.

p.s. Thanks to Peg from South Carolina for nudging me on the photos and telling me that Blogger will trim them down - I don't have to do that.