Loom Upgrade

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!

August TotM - Huck

The latest in the Towel of the Month series was in a huck threading, 40/2 linen warp set at 30 epi.  The weft is 40/2 linen as well.

I wove two towels, one using the huck lace tie-up and treadling (on the right in the photo), and one in huck spot (left).  I think the huck spot is more practical as a towel, so that one has gone off to its new home.


For the threading, tie-up and treadlings to make this towel yourself, see the draft in this post.

August TotM Weaving

Here's the huck lace version of the August towel, in natural 40/2 unbleached linen.  To make the design square, weave the plain weave between the lace treadling sequence the same size as the plain weave threading between the lace threading blocks.  If you are weaving evenweave (the same picks per inch as ends per inch), this will be 36 picks of plain weave between the lace.

August TotM - More Lace Weaving

Summer is flying by, isn't it?

The Towel of the Month for August uses a huck threading in blocks, surrounded by plain weave.  Here are the stats:

Warp: unbleached 40/2 linen
Weft: same as warp
Total number of warp ends: 564
Warp setting: 30 ends per inch (epi)
Width in reed: 18.8"

Thread according to the draft shown here.

There are two different treadlings for this towel.  You can make huck lace using the first tie-up and treadling, or you can make huck "spots" with the other combination.  Make one towel using each!