Tuesday, August 18, 2015
This is why I have no pictures of looms...
I wasn't planning to meet a weaver. I just went for a run, and got curious about where the road went, and then I heard a loom as I ran past the shed. So on the way back, after the road ended in a sheep pasture (should've known), I stopped and stuck my head around the door. He had a blue sweater and a smile and invited me in. And I started asking questions. After all, I hadn't seen a double width loom before. It's much quieter than a single width loom. It has pedals and no shuttle (saves a lot of time winding bobbins) and most of the pieces are smaller. It must be faster as well, because this man also weaves 30-40 meters in a day and the fabric is twice as wide. He was funny and told me stories about working for the mill (which sadly I can't tour), and different patterns and colors he's used, and lots of stories about his trips to California. Apparently he's colorblind, so setting up the loom can be a real challenge. When I asked how he got started weaving he laughed and said that he'd dropped out of school and needed to try something, so he took a course on weaving. Been doing that ever since. He wove over a meter while I was watching -- it still amazes me how fast it is once everything is going. And then he gave me a lovely sample of blue tweed, and sent me off on my run with a smile. A lovely and lucky stop!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Tell me a little more... single width vs double width -- 24" vs 48"? The pedals mechanism throws the weft yarns across by way of a shuttle or ? Are these Jacquard type looms that have cards or some other mechanism that determines which threads are raised for each shot of weft? Do they automatically select which color is shooting across each time as well?
ReplyDeleteSingle width is 75cm, double 150. The pedals move the heddles and throw the shuttle across, and the weft color is selected (out of six shuttles) by cards. For each strand of the weft it can use the same shuttle or move one spot in either direction (cards have two holes -- if one is blocked it forces a lever which spins the cylinder holding the shuttles. Which warp threads are raised each shot is determined when the loom is set up. There's one pattern for herringbone and one for plaid/plain (and the herringbone can be altered by width). In the plain, the warp threads are pulled through the heddles 1,2,3,4 (one strand to each heddle) and repeated. For herringbone they have to go backwards to get the V, so it's 1,2,3,4,2,1,4,3. But, I believe when the loom is running for either pattern the heddles are actually raised in the same order (2 up, 2 down) each time.
ReplyDelete