Okay, who can tell which of these table napkins was woven using a mechanical dobby, and which the electronic dobby? (Hint: I can't, and I wove them both.) These have a section of huck lace in the center of them, with plain weave in the striped borders. In the middle of a run of napkins, the CompuDobby I ordered arrived from
AVL Looms. So I decided to swap it in.
I had to remove the main roller from the dobby head, and a bunch of parts from the side. Here they are along with some of the dobby chain (wooden bars with pegs) that drives the mechanical system, my box of extra pegs and pegging tool.
The replacement for all that is this black box, magnet, and pair of sensors to tell if I have the dobby bar raised or lowered as I'm weaving. Installation involved drilling one hole, so I had the BF come over and do it -- no way I trust my (lack of) woodworking skills to that! It all went surprisingly smoothly and is working great so far. I like not having to screw in all those little pegs for every project, or swap out chains just to switch from pattern to tabby areas. However it's going to take some getting used to having a loom with an "on" switch!
