Last night Carlos helped me mount six more harnesses onto Millicent. As each harness is suspended from its cables, the lower sprung lamms are also chained to the underside of each harness. We had just mounted the third (third from the back; harness #14) harness when I noticed that the lower harness bar was tilted quite severely.
It continues that way for now. We got more harnesses on and they settled into their spots just fine, but harness 14's lower wooden bar kept tilting up on the left and down on the right.
I am not sure what is causing this, but I have a couple of ideas about possible sources:
1) Something to do with the spring.
The older springs that were included with the loom are - well, old. They have a soft jiggliness that seems to be about the correct softness for the spring to perfectly balance the harness. I noticed that someone had purchased a whole new set of springs for the lower sprung lamms, but those springs are much too rigid and tense to use - I put one on a lower lamm and the whole thing collapsed - it was literally so strong that it pulled the harness right down. There are sixteen of the new springs, so I'm thinking that someone in the past had tried to replace the older springs with these. Not sure if they're from AVL, but if they are, they are the wrong hardness for this particular loom. Might have to call AVL to explore options, or to try to search for springs that have a similar soft springiness.
2) Something to do with the capped piano wires that ride on either side of each harness. I bent two of the wires, so that might be the cause somehow.
3) Not enough heddles all the way to the sides of each harness. Might be bunched up too close in the middle. Haven't really examined harness 14 for this - I read about it on the AVL troubleshooting page.
4) Something about the wooden blocks that carry the springs underneath each harness. Friction, perhaps. Or the lack of it...
I also read on that same page how to 'choke up' on the springs a little bit in order to increase the strength of the chain. I can't visualize how this will help if the harness is tilting rather than riding low or high, but it's a consideration.
Overall though I was pleased to see all the rest of the harnesses neatly hanging in a slanted row - they are slanted slightly in order to produce a more even shed with the jack action.
What else is left to do:
a. Finish hanging the harnesses on their cables and spacing out the heddles.
b. Seat all the cables in their respective slots underneath the dobby fingers.
c. Re-seat the two pull cables on the harness bar, which ride over a pulley inside the back
of the dobby box. Might be a little tricky.
d. Figure out (with Tien's help tomorrow) how to properly mount the weights and cords for
tensioning the two warp beams and the cloth storage beam.
e. Attach the treadle cables from the dobby box to the two treadles, and adjust.
Then, to try everything out. I will probably put a short 8-bar chain on the dobby, just in tabby or a simple twill, to test-run. I'm so excited!
Friday, February 28, 2014
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Heddles 'n' Harnesses.
Last night, it was cold and rainy outside and very cold in the garage, so I gathered up the bundle of sixteen harnesses (which were sort of co-tangled, with the Texsolv heddles sticking to any protrusion that they could find) and brought them up to the living room to sort and de-tangle.
It took me about an hour, which was reassuring since I was expecting it to take rather longer. I gathered all the heddles towards the middle of the harnesses in order to prevent futher tangling.
The wooden bars of each harness were joined by the heddles, and whoever packed up the harnesses had very carefully tied a fabric apron tie round them to keep it all together. Amazingness is in the details: the knots on the apron ties were flat and beautiful and made so carefully. It made me wonder at the skills of the person who had tied those knots. I wonder when, in the history of this loom, they were tied. The tiny incidental details of things can be very thrilling - especially when seen in a historical context. It's the minor things that make me feel so connected to others in the past, remote from me in time.
After I finished detangling the sixteen harnesses, I tied them all together in order to prevent them from tangling until the time I could get them on the loom. I got back downstairs in the garage and found it too cold, and it was getting late and my body was calling for sleep. BUT...I really wanted to put those harnesses on the loom!
I decided that I would mount one harness and then go to bed. It was a little fiddly getting it on due to the behavior of the sprung lamms below, but I did it. It's hard to describe exactly, but the sprung lamms operate not unlike a compound bow. Until I got into the right position, one side kept plopping down with a sonorous DOIIIIIIYYYYING sound, but once I got it right it snapped right into place. Just for grins, I moved the dobby so that the metal stop on the dobby cable for that harness fit nicely into the dobby bar, which I pulled down to make the harness lift. It did. And as I released the dobby bar, I heard the dobby advance with its characteristic clickety-clack sound.
Hopefully tonight I will feel less tired (I slept fitfully last night) and get at least an additional portion of the harnesses mounted.
It took me about an hour, which was reassuring since I was expecting it to take rather longer. I gathered all the heddles towards the middle of the harnesses in order to prevent futher tangling.
The wooden bars of each harness were joined by the heddles, and whoever packed up the harnesses had very carefully tied a fabric apron tie round them to keep it all together. Amazingness is in the details: the knots on the apron ties were flat and beautiful and made so carefully. It made me wonder at the skills of the person who had tied those knots. I wonder when, in the history of this loom, they were tied. The tiny incidental details of things can be very thrilling - especially when seen in a historical context. It's the minor things that make me feel so connected to others in the past, remote from me in time.
After I finished detangling the sixteen harnesses, I tied them all together in order to prevent them from tangling until the time I could get them on the loom. I got back downstairs in the garage and found it too cold, and it was getting late and my body was calling for sleep. BUT...I really wanted to put those harnesses on the loom!
I decided that I would mount one harness and then go to bed. It was a little fiddly getting it on due to the behavior of the sprung lamms below, but I did it. It's hard to describe exactly, but the sprung lamms operate not unlike a compound bow. Until I got into the right position, one side kept plopping down with a sonorous DOIIIIIIYYYYING sound, but once I got it right it snapped right into place. Just for grins, I moved the dobby so that the metal stop on the dobby cable for that harness fit nicely into the dobby bar, which I pulled down to make the harness lift. It did. And as I released the dobby bar, I heard the dobby advance with its characteristic clickety-clack sound.
Hopefully tonight I will feel less tired (I slept fitfully last night) and get at least an additional portion of the harnesses mounted.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Three looms.
With the arrival of the older AVL dobby loom a couple of weeks ago, I now own three looms.
One is a 2-harness counterbalance loom for weaving Linen; it dates to around 1840 and was made by Norwegian settlers to Minnesota. I bought it from the family who originally made it. It's currently in storage, waiting for the day when we have more room to set it up.
The second is a Cranbrook loom, a very sturdy 4-harness countermarche loom I bought in 2002 from a nice person in Grass Valley, CA. My friend Rosemary transported it for me - we went to pick it up in Grass Valley where she lashed it securely to the roof of her car, and drove it to Haight Street in San Francisco, where I lived at that time.
Now the AVL joins the family.
Each of my three looms has a story to it - they're all 'older' looms. The Norwegian loom is the oldest, followed by the Cranbrook (it's an early Cranbrook, built when the Cranbrook brand still belonged to the Bexell company, in about 1976). The AVL is an earlier model and dates from around 1979-80.
One of the aspects of this new-to-me AVL that delights me is that it has little clues to its history on it. The previous owner pointed out some of them to me.
That it was a prototype is borne out by the little palimpsests of change that still show; holes that were drilled to accomodate bolts were plugged and then redrilled in slightly different positions...there are two warp beams, one a large sectional beam and the other a 'straight' warp beam that was clearly turned carefully by hand (on a large lathe!) and the general appearance of having been well-used. I loved seeing the parts of the maple loom frame that, long hidden from view under other parts or where the loom frame members joined together, remain pale because they were hidden from light. Some people might fret about a few scratches and scrapes on the loom but to me these are beautiful...the signs of use. While it does not have some of the later features of AVL looms, such as the cloth auto-advance, I admire it as a document of how AVL looms were in the early '80s, and I've never had an auto-advance on any of my looms, so it's nothing I would miss. This loom is still a marvel of excellent engineering on the part of the AVL company; that 35 years later it remains in excellent and functional condition is only a testament of the quality of AVL looms.
Although this loom is a product of the modern age, it still dates from a period of time when things were 'built to last'. And I like to think that it somehow retains the poetry of each stroke of the beater and each shed raised over its lifetime, rather how I used to wonder if an old mirror somehow still retained each reflection cast into it over the years.
I first saw an AVL loom in person in the summer of 1983. It would have been either this model of AVL loom, or a slightly newer model. Now one of the early ones stands in our garage studio.
It's almost completely reassembled. The frame is together, the mechanical dobby is working again (it came with an early Compu-dobby attached to it but I really wanted to use it with its original mechanical dobby at first), the beams are all in place, and this evening we're planning to hang the harnesses and connect them to the sprung lamms down below. A friend who has more experience with AVL looms will be coming over this Saturday to troubleshoot (that is, if there is any trouble to troubleshoot!). I'm planning to put a warp on next week to start on a green silk scarf I promised a friend.
Altogether I am very jazzed to have this loom - it's a bit of AVL history, it's the history of its three previous owners, and it's a working tool. I'm quite chuffed that I've been able to assemble it thus far without much assistance. Many kudos to the most recent owner, who carefully accounted for each and every part down to each screw, bolt, and nut - and who drove it down from Oregon to our fair city on the Bay, and who has generously been available whenever I've had questions during the reassembly.
One is a 2-harness counterbalance loom for weaving Linen; it dates to around 1840 and was made by Norwegian settlers to Minnesota. I bought it from the family who originally made it. It's currently in storage, waiting for the day when we have more room to set it up.
The second is a Cranbrook loom, a very sturdy 4-harness countermarche loom I bought in 2002 from a nice person in Grass Valley, CA. My friend Rosemary transported it for me - we went to pick it up in Grass Valley where she lashed it securely to the roof of her car, and drove it to Haight Street in San Francisco, where I lived at that time.
Now the AVL joins the family.
Each of my three looms has a story to it - they're all 'older' looms. The Norwegian loom is the oldest, followed by the Cranbrook (it's an early Cranbrook, built when the Cranbrook brand still belonged to the Bexell company, in about 1976). The AVL is an earlier model and dates from around 1979-80.
One of the aspects of this new-to-me AVL that delights me is that it has little clues to its history on it. The previous owner pointed out some of them to me.
That it was a prototype is borne out by the little palimpsests of change that still show; holes that were drilled to accomodate bolts were plugged and then redrilled in slightly different positions...there are two warp beams, one a large sectional beam and the other a 'straight' warp beam that was clearly turned carefully by hand (on a large lathe!) and the general appearance of having been well-used. I loved seeing the parts of the maple loom frame that, long hidden from view under other parts or where the loom frame members joined together, remain pale because they were hidden from light. Some people might fret about a few scratches and scrapes on the loom but to me these are beautiful...the signs of use. While it does not have some of the later features of AVL looms, such as the cloth auto-advance, I admire it as a document of how AVL looms were in the early '80s, and I've never had an auto-advance on any of my looms, so it's nothing I would miss. This loom is still a marvel of excellent engineering on the part of the AVL company; that 35 years later it remains in excellent and functional condition is only a testament of the quality of AVL looms.
Although this loom is a product of the modern age, it still dates from a period of time when things were 'built to last'. And I like to think that it somehow retains the poetry of each stroke of the beater and each shed raised over its lifetime, rather how I used to wonder if an old mirror somehow still retained each reflection cast into it over the years.
I first saw an AVL loom in person in the summer of 1983. It would have been either this model of AVL loom, or a slightly newer model. Now one of the early ones stands in our garage studio.
It's almost completely reassembled. The frame is together, the mechanical dobby is working again (it came with an early Compu-dobby attached to it but I really wanted to use it with its original mechanical dobby at first), the beams are all in place, and this evening we're planning to hang the harnesses and connect them to the sprung lamms down below. A friend who has more experience with AVL looms will be coming over this Saturday to troubleshoot (that is, if there is any trouble to troubleshoot!). I'm planning to put a warp on next week to start on a green silk scarf I promised a friend.
Altogether I am very jazzed to have this loom - it's a bit of AVL history, it's the history of its three previous owners, and it's a working tool. I'm quite chuffed that I've been able to assemble it thus far without much assistance. Many kudos to the most recent owner, who carefully accounted for each and every part down to each screw, bolt, and nut - and who drove it down from Oregon to our fair city on the Bay, and who has generously been available whenever I've had questions during the reassembly.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Weekend of Industry and Progress.
This weekend we spent a morning in the garden picking the last of the fava beans and clearing away the remaining plants in preparation for spring planting! We cleared the cruciferous bed and also the one where most of the favas have been growing. Remembering that there is no gopher screen beneath the soil in the cruciferous bed, we planted in the other bed, the one I lined with gopher screen last year and filled with the nice organic soil from Sloat. Into this we planted two rows of cool-range lettuces, and three rows of multicolored carrots.
And then we walked home with Carlos' flannel shirt used as an impromptu carrier for the many fava beans. We took them home, shelled them, blanched the beans and then plunged into ice water to split the outer skins, and then peeled them. I ended up sauteeing the blanched beans in a mixture of olive oil, hazelnut oil, orange zest, garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin. They were so delicious!! We ate them with the leftover Spanish rice I made with chicken the other night. Zzzzzfood coma...
Intermittently throughout the weekend I assembled the new-to-me AVL loom. The mechanical dobby seems to work just fine, though I am sure I will have to do fiddly tuning with it once the harnesses are on and the dobby pins/chain attached. It was amazing to see how small a pile Granny Cranny took as she was disassembled reverently, and then there were this big clean floor space. The two halves of the AVL assembled without too much difficulty, and then Carlos helped me to hold them vertical while I attached them with the cross-members. Once that was done I added the lower treadle pulley rack, and then the lower lamms/springs. I took a break and then finally attached the mechanical dobby box and the upper pulley housing up on top of the loom. For grins, I placed the large sectional warp beam in its brackets, though I still need to attach something to it. You can see the photos here. Amazing to see the loom come back to life - it goes from being a pile of wood beams and assorted chunks and cogs to being an organized instrument.
Seems to take up almost the same footprint as Granny Cranny, but it's slightly taller.
Next step will be to attach all the springs to the lower lamms (some fell off in transit) and to attach harnesses (with help) to upper castle pulleys/dobby and then to attach the lower sprung lamms to the bottom of the harnesses. Then the treadles to their respective connections, and then the remaining parts - the various weights and pulleys.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Yesterday I came home from work to find that the new Bluster Bay Honex-tensioned end-feed shuttle had arrived. It's beautiful. I don't like the marblewood as much as I would have liked the boxwood I sent, but it is the weight and the function and the balance that is so notable. The wood is perfect for this. It's a shuttle that Bluster Bay mentions is good for weavers with small hands, but even with my huge ham-hands I find it the perfect size for me. I do also have a shuttle that is their larger size, but I find that it's too big for me somehow, and less wieldy.
The new shuttle also has a Honex tensioner on it, which is a very sensitive tensioner. I tend to use very fine thread which does not work as well in the hook-tensioned shuttle since they get caught up on the fine metal threads of the hook at the bottom where they are screwed in, For larger thread, this is not a problem, but it has been a bit of a challenge while using the hook-tensioned shuttle with fine silk thread, especially with fine reeled untwisted tram.
I used Tien's identical shuttle a few weeks ago and was very impressed with how it handled the finer silk thread. Plus it's a delight to hold.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Progress on Assembling the Mechanical Dobby.
Here is a photo I took a few minutes ago of the mechanical dobby from Millie the AVL loom.
Mysterious Dobby
I had a bit of a breakthrough with the AVL dobby last night. Although I've used one before, on Rosemary's borrowed Schacht Baby Wolf 8-harness mechanical dobby, I didn't have to assemble that one, so it remained an interesting, clicky-sounding box with some rolling parts. Last night I sat and really took a moment to study the dobby, looking inside, moving parts around, and reading the careful prose of the assembly manual.
So what I didn't understand was that the mechanism for actually lifting the harnesses is the dobby bar - it moves for each shed. And the compu-dobby, or the pins of the bars on the rotating mechanical dobby, push in the little dobby keys inside the box (where there is a pin, it pushes it in; where there is not, it leaves the pin unpushed = simple binary code) and then the treadle is depressed to pull down the dobby arm and raise the selected harnesses, the unselected harnesses remaining in a down position.
So really, that was the big learning thing. The next is to understand the assembly of the mechanical dobby on the side of the dobby box - the rocking cog, etc., and how it attaches to the loom.
There are some metal bars missing from the dobby keys where the dobby pins strike them. It looks as though it was used without them for some time, as it reveals marks, but I could probably service the dobby and affix replacement metal shields on the dobby keys as needed.
Saturday, or day after tomorrow, I'd really like to begin assembly of the AVL. To do this I shall have to disassemble Granny Cranny, and stash her; then I'll clean the floor and surrounding area. It might not be possible to attach the fly shuttle boxes right now, on account of not enough width in that part of the garage (without the fly shuttle boxes it will just leave about 12" of clearance along the left-hand side of the loom, the passageway. Since the Bluster Bay shuttle is due to arrive, I suspect I could do just fine with that for now, though the fly shuttle is very intriguing. And probably quite loud and vigorous when in use!!
Wondering also what to do with Blossom's previously-wound blue cotton warp that's on the large beam. Since it's a double warp beam loom, one sectional one straight, I might for now just leave Blossom's warp on the sectional beam as it is, and warp Noemi's scarf on the straight warp beam. In any case I don't have the AVL Warping Wheel yet, nor a spool rack, though I've recently learned that sectional warps can be wound on a warping board, in bouts of 2" at a time. That would take of course as long as winding any regular warp, but would fit on the sectional beam. Gotta get that Warping Wheel.
So what I didn't understand was that the mechanism for actually lifting the harnesses is the dobby bar - it moves for each shed. And the compu-dobby, or the pins of the bars on the rotating mechanical dobby, push in the little dobby keys inside the box (where there is a pin, it pushes it in; where there is not, it leaves the pin unpushed = simple binary code) and then the treadle is depressed to pull down the dobby arm and raise the selected harnesses, the unselected harnesses remaining in a down position.
So really, that was the big learning thing. The next is to understand the assembly of the mechanical dobby on the side of the dobby box - the rocking cog, etc., and how it attaches to the loom.
There are some metal bars missing from the dobby keys where the dobby pins strike them. It looks as though it was used without them for some time, as it reveals marks, but I could probably service the dobby and affix replacement metal shields on the dobby keys as needed.
Saturday, or day after tomorrow, I'd really like to begin assembly of the AVL. To do this I shall have to disassemble Granny Cranny, and stash her; then I'll clean the floor and surrounding area. It might not be possible to attach the fly shuttle boxes right now, on account of not enough width in that part of the garage (without the fly shuttle boxes it will just leave about 12" of clearance along the left-hand side of the loom, the passageway. Since the Bluster Bay shuttle is due to arrive, I suspect I could do just fine with that for now, though the fly shuttle is very intriguing. And probably quite loud and vigorous when in use!!
Wondering also what to do with Blossom's previously-wound blue cotton warp that's on the large beam. Since it's a double warp beam loom, one sectional one straight, I might for now just leave Blossom's warp on the sectional beam as it is, and warp Noemi's scarf on the straight warp beam. In any case I don't have the AVL Warping Wheel yet, nor a spool rack, though I've recently learned that sectional warps can be wound on a warping board, in bouts of 2" at a time. That would take of course as long as winding any regular warp, but would fit on the sectional beam. Gotta get that Warping Wheel.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
I Was Too Zonk'd, or Devour'd by the Couch.
After this past weekend, which was so busy, and with late evenings and late to bed each night, my plans to do more work on the mechanical dobby were set aside for the evening as I slouched on the couch with Carlos and re-watched the most recent episode of Downton Abbey. It's always fun to watch it the second time and analyze the show as we go - we can pause it to discuss! And to dish!
I dropped off to sleep on the couch, Carlos waking me up to tell me to go to bed. I did, and dropped off to sleep in seconds. I had a very vivid dream about using the sandpaper beam on the AVL for the first time - it was fun.
Visions of 16-harness patterns swimming about in my mind-granary.
I'm still pondering whether it would be better to just leave the compu-dobby on and try the new loom that way first, or to go ahead and try to reconfigure the parts of the mechanical dobby? Hmmm...
Also: great news: the new Honex end-feed shuttle from Bluster Bay is on its way! I assume he's made it with my original choice of marblewood (like Tien's) and not the wood from the boxwood log I sent him, since the wood has to acclimate before working, and it's only been in his hands for a few weeks. Probably marblewood...which is no small thing, since I had the pleasure of using Tien's for a test-run on Emmy, her 40-harness AVL loom, and found the shuttle to be amazing. Just the right weight and especially just the right size - Tien says she picked the small size shuttle because she has tiny hands - which she does; but even with my gorilla hands, I found the little BB Honex shuttle to be the most perfectly-sized and weighted shuttle I've used to date.
I dropped off to sleep on the couch, Carlos waking me up to tell me to go to bed. I did, and dropped off to sleep in seconds. I had a very vivid dream about using the sandpaper beam on the AVL for the first time - it was fun.
Visions of 16-harness patterns swimming about in my mind-granary.
I'm still pondering whether it would be better to just leave the compu-dobby on and try the new loom that way first, or to go ahead and try to reconfigure the parts of the mechanical dobby? Hmmm...
Also: great news: the new Honex end-feed shuttle from Bluster Bay is on its way! I assume he's made it with my original choice of marblewood (like Tien's) and not the wood from the boxwood log I sent him, since the wood has to acclimate before working, and it's only been in his hands for a few weeks. Probably marblewood...which is no small thing, since I had the pleasure of using Tien's for a test-run on Emmy, her 40-harness AVL loom, and found the shuttle to be amazing. Just the right weight and especially just the right size - Tien says she picked the small size shuttle because she has tiny hands - which she does; but even with my gorilla hands, I found the little BB Honex shuttle to be the most perfectly-sized and weighted shuttle I've used to date.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Fun and Slightly Exhausting Weekend
Three-day weekend, due to the Presidents' Day federal observance.
Saturday, Carlos and Bart and I went up to Russian River to spend the day with friends Bill and Fred and their neighbor Eric. Carlos and I cooked a meal (vegan by default) for everyone. I of course fell sound asleep in the back of Bart's Prius and woke up back in San Francisco just in time.
We hiked a nice trail at the River. Muddy as all get-out, but it was such a treat to see the nature. Especially wonderful was getting to see the hills in the distance with their flush of green. Ordinarily they'd be bright green at this time of year, but we've had so little rain...
Sunday I went to see Nyondo and Joy with Tien. We went to Artfibers in Vallejo, which was having its final closeout sale. Not much left, and what was left was either very expensive or ugly. Got to see a nice industrial skeining machine, and a custom-made-in-italy plying machine.
And yesterday I took BART and CalTrain down the Penninsula to see Tien. We dyed stuff in the afternoon in the yard - I dyed a bit of Bryan's silk a truly acidic yellow, and my old linen shirt was dyed dark purple. The train ride back was long, and waiting was difficult because of the cold, despite my nice wool turtleneck. Returned with swag from Tien - software to run the old compudobby, a reed-hook, and a 20-dent reed!!
I took out the mechanical dobby for Millie (the new-to-me AVL loom) and assessed the parts. Looks like everything is there, and I've been able to find some images online to work from since the AVL assembly guide does not include instructions for assembling the mechanical dobby - it explains how to attach it to the loom, but since when this loom was new it would have been already pre-assembled at the factory. Blossom kindly said that he can take photos of his mechanical dobbies for me.
Saturday, Carlos and Bart and I went up to Russian River to spend the day with friends Bill and Fred and their neighbor Eric. Carlos and I cooked a meal (vegan by default) for everyone. I of course fell sound asleep in the back of Bart's Prius and woke up back in San Francisco just in time.
We hiked a nice trail at the River. Muddy as all get-out, but it was such a treat to see the nature. Especially wonderful was getting to see the hills in the distance with their flush of green. Ordinarily they'd be bright green at this time of year, but we've had so little rain...
Sunday I went to see Nyondo and Joy with Tien. We went to Artfibers in Vallejo, which was having its final closeout sale. Not much left, and what was left was either very expensive or ugly. Got to see a nice industrial skeining machine, and a custom-made-in-italy plying machine.
And yesterday I took BART and CalTrain down the Penninsula to see Tien. We dyed stuff in the afternoon in the yard - I dyed a bit of Bryan's silk a truly acidic yellow, and my old linen shirt was dyed dark purple. The train ride back was long, and waiting was difficult because of the cold, despite my nice wool turtleneck. Returned with swag from Tien - software to run the old compudobby, a reed-hook, and a 20-dent reed!!
I took out the mechanical dobby for Millie (the new-to-me AVL loom) and assessed the parts. Looks like everything is there, and I've been able to find some images online to work from since the AVL assembly guide does not include instructions for assembling the mechanical dobby - it explains how to attach it to the loom, but since when this loom was new it would have been already pre-assembled at the factory. Blossom kindly said that he can take photos of his mechanical dobbies for me.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Mechanical Dobby...
I still have to clear space for Millie, the AVL loom that arrived yesterday. However, I think that I can definitely try to reassemble Millie's mechanical dobby mechanism (currently it is set up for the later compu-dobby, but I'd really like to try out the mechanical dobby and explore that for a while).
What's a dobby, you say?
'Dobby' is a contracted form of 'Draw-Boy'.
So then, what's a draw-boy?
To explain this we have to skate back in history a ways, to ancient China.
The Chinese developed a marvelous floor loom that also featured supplemental harnesses to raise threads independently of the harnesses controlling the main woven structure, which you can think of as the matrix of the textile. These had cords that were raised in sequence in order to lift the pattern harnesses (of which there were many). The draw-boy sat perched atop the loom and would pull, or draw, the cords according to the sequence which the weaver was calling out. Pattern sequences were memorized by the weaver (and probably the draw-boy), which I find amazing.
Draw harnesses evolved from pattern sticks in sequential sheds, which seem to have appeared not only in Asia but in the Americas and in Africa - I can't be sure how this happened, but I have always considered the possibility that pattern sticks were sort of, as Elizabeth Zimmerman would say, un-vented, in different parts of the world. People are clever.
But the Chinese took this concept further, and invented the draw harness.
It's all binary code, by the way. Starting with the pattern sticks and people carrying complete pattern sequences around in their heads. Computers have been with us for a long, long time.
Since binary code lends itself so well to things, it was only a matter of time before somebody recognized that the binary code as used for draw harnesses by a person on top of the loom pulling cords in sequence could be mechanized into something that would do the same thing. I am not sure when the pin dobby was invented, but it is basically analogous to punch cards, which run the next step towards computers, the Jacquard loom, which was invented sometime in the eighteenth century, though its predecessors in Europe go back to the fifteenth century. And I seem to recall that some of these earlier iterations used the pin dobby. It's so simple, really.
So the draw-boy has turned into a mechanical analog computer. Since then it has also evolved into a digital computer that runs the pattern sequences and the lifting of the harnesses. Very wonderfully, Ahrens & Violette engineered a loom which, though modern, use a mechanical dobby.
What's a dobby, you say?
'Dobby' is a contracted form of 'Draw-Boy'.
So then, what's a draw-boy?
To explain this we have to skate back in history a ways, to ancient China.
The Chinese developed a marvelous floor loom that also featured supplemental harnesses to raise threads independently of the harnesses controlling the main woven structure, which you can think of as the matrix of the textile. These had cords that were raised in sequence in order to lift the pattern harnesses (of which there were many). The draw-boy sat perched atop the loom and would pull, or draw, the cords according to the sequence which the weaver was calling out. Pattern sequences were memorized by the weaver (and probably the draw-boy), which I find amazing.
Draw harnesses evolved from pattern sticks in sequential sheds, which seem to have appeared not only in Asia but in the Americas and in Africa - I can't be sure how this happened, but I have always considered the possibility that pattern sticks were sort of, as Elizabeth Zimmerman would say, un-vented, in different parts of the world. People are clever.
But the Chinese took this concept further, and invented the draw harness.
It's all binary code, by the way. Starting with the pattern sticks and people carrying complete pattern sequences around in their heads. Computers have been with us for a long, long time.
Since binary code lends itself so well to things, it was only a matter of time before somebody recognized that the binary code as used for draw harnesses by a person on top of the loom pulling cords in sequence could be mechanized into something that would do the same thing. I am not sure when the pin dobby was invented, but it is basically analogous to punch cards, which run the next step towards computers, the Jacquard loom, which was invented sometime in the eighteenth century, though its predecessors in Europe go back to the fifteenth century. And I seem to recall that some of these earlier iterations used the pin dobby. It's so simple, really.
So the draw-boy has turned into a mechanical analog computer. Since then it has also evolved into a digital computer that runs the pattern sequences and the lifting of the harnesses. Very wonderfully, Ahrens & Violette engineered a loom which, though modern, use a mechanical dobby.
Friday, February 14, 2014
New-to-me AVL Loom, and an In-Rush of Memories.
Just received a visit from a friend who sold me a new-to-me loom.
Well. This is an AVL loom, from the AVL Company, formerly known as the Ahrens & Violette Looms.
The loom which I got yesterday (for a song! And I'm still singing...) was made in 1979, has 16 harnesses, a mechanical dobby, and a compudobby as well. And a fly-shuttle! It is currently reposing still disassembled in our garage, waiting for the time when my 4-harness Great Cranbrook (which is even older than the AVL, and which is affectionately known as Granny Cranny) will be gently disassembled to make room for the AVL. I wish I had room for both to be working, but that will have to wait until such time as we have more room.
Being that it's sixteen harnesses, I've named her Millicent Sedecima (Millicent Sixteen), or 'Millie' for short. I am in awe and anticipation about getting to be able to explore that many possibilities for structure and pattern. Now within my reach is satin, multiple-block double-weave, and fabulous advancing twills. Also fancy Renaissance-style silk point twills, especially my favorite, M and W.
Last time a loom came to me, it was the Year of the Horse as well. Twelve years ago...
I had been thinking off and on about buying an AVL for several years now, but was put off by the prices (which, considering the amount of excellent engineering that went into the design of the AVL Loom, are not unreasonable...just high.). Well, I recall, back in the summer of 1983, the summer Denise A. and I lived at that commune in Western MA, the summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years at Bennington, I had taken the bus into Amherst for a little R 'n' R. While there I had stopped at Webs, now in nearby Northampton but back in the day just down the street from AmChi and Emily Dickinson's house.
I had just done a mini-apprenticeship with the Vermont weaver Dee Ertell, who had a shop called Bennington West out on the West Road just outside of Old Bennington, in January-March of 1983. At the time I was in no position to buy a loom (but contented myself with backstrap and tablet weaving...) but the purpose of my trip to Webs was mainly to get to go in there and see looms and yarn. I was able to purchase a tiny quantity of yarn, just so that I didn't walk in and buy nothing. Webs had a big Glimakra Standard set up in their store. I stood there in the July morning sunshine, drinking in the sight of all that string held in Holy Order on the loom. I seem to remember that someone had warped the loom with linen or cotton. I was too shy to ask if I could try the loom, and since I wasn't actually able to buy a loom at that point I felt it wasn't totally honest to ask to try out the loom when I knew I wasn't going to buy one, so I didn't ask.
The friendly proprietress asked me if I knew about the big weaving conference that was about to start at nearby UMass. I was delighted to learn of it. I ended up going to the conference as a guest.
In retrospect I see now that I avoided a lot of possibly good opportunities to network and meet other fibre artisans there due to my shyness. Instead, feeling unnecessarily alienated (by myself, in reality), pouring sweat out of nervousness, I carefully avoided any interaction with anyone there and slid around the place like a half-visible wraith. Now as I approach 50, I can laugh at my self-limiting folly then, constantly hemmed in and tormented by, as Emerson wrote, "...evils which never arrived!" Part of it was that I felt that because I had no money to buy anything that I ought not to waste the time of any of the vendors. Now I would walk right up and chat, but back then that was quite beyond me. At that age, 18, I should have recognized that as a young weaver I could only profit from networking.
While I was there I happened upon a very interesting loom that had been set up. A middle-aged lady was weaving on it. I had never seen a loom quite that complex...lots of pulleys and so many harnesses (it was a 16-harness loom, which I'd never seen before!) When there was a lull in her weaving I approached her, terrified, unable to make any eye contact, and asked her what kind of loom that was. Unfortunately, she turned out to be the one person at the show I interacted with, and she was not friendly. Without turning to acknowledge me she hissed "It's an AVL - what the hell did you think it was?". I asked her what an AVL was, since I had no idea at the time, but she ignored me. But I was so fascinated at the time that I just stood by as she resumed weaving.
That was the first time I saw an AVL in action. And the loom I received yesterday is *that* model of loom, from that period, when the AVLs were still new. I don't even think that they had the Compu-dobby yet.
When I do demonstrations nowadays, I always remember the unfriendly lady at the loom. I make it a point to be approachable and friendly, and to always be willing to share knowledge of the craft. It's so important in order to keep the craft alive.
Well. This is an AVL loom, from the AVL Company, formerly known as the Ahrens & Violette Looms.
The loom which I got yesterday (for a song! And I'm still singing...) was made in 1979, has 16 harnesses, a mechanical dobby, and a compudobby as well. And a fly-shuttle! It is currently reposing still disassembled in our garage, waiting for the time when my 4-harness Great Cranbrook (which is even older than the AVL, and which is affectionately known as Granny Cranny) will be gently disassembled to make room for the AVL. I wish I had room for both to be working, but that will have to wait until such time as we have more room.
Being that it's sixteen harnesses, I've named her Millicent Sedecima (Millicent Sixteen), or 'Millie' for short. I am in awe and anticipation about getting to be able to explore that many possibilities for structure and pattern. Now within my reach is satin, multiple-block double-weave, and fabulous advancing twills. Also fancy Renaissance-style silk point twills, especially my favorite, M and W.
Last time a loom came to me, it was the Year of the Horse as well. Twelve years ago...
I had been thinking off and on about buying an AVL for several years now, but was put off by the prices (which, considering the amount of excellent engineering that went into the design of the AVL Loom, are not unreasonable...just high.). Well, I recall, back in the summer of 1983, the summer Denise A. and I lived at that commune in Western MA, the summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years at Bennington, I had taken the bus into Amherst for a little R 'n' R. While there I had stopped at Webs, now in nearby Northampton but back in the day just down the street from AmChi and Emily Dickinson's house.
I had just done a mini-apprenticeship with the Vermont weaver Dee Ertell, who had a shop called Bennington West out on the West Road just outside of Old Bennington, in January-March of 1983. At the time I was in no position to buy a loom (but contented myself with backstrap and tablet weaving...) but the purpose of my trip to Webs was mainly to get to go in there and see looms and yarn. I was able to purchase a tiny quantity of yarn, just so that I didn't walk in and buy nothing. Webs had a big Glimakra Standard set up in their store. I stood there in the July morning sunshine, drinking in the sight of all that string held in Holy Order on the loom. I seem to remember that someone had warped the loom with linen or cotton. I was too shy to ask if I could try the loom, and since I wasn't actually able to buy a loom at that point I felt it wasn't totally honest to ask to try out the loom when I knew I wasn't going to buy one, so I didn't ask.
The friendly proprietress asked me if I knew about the big weaving conference that was about to start at nearby UMass. I was delighted to learn of it. I ended up going to the conference as a guest.
In retrospect I see now that I avoided a lot of possibly good opportunities to network and meet other fibre artisans there due to my shyness. Instead, feeling unnecessarily alienated (by myself, in reality), pouring sweat out of nervousness, I carefully avoided any interaction with anyone there and slid around the place like a half-visible wraith. Now as I approach 50, I can laugh at my self-limiting folly then, constantly hemmed in and tormented by, as Emerson wrote, "...evils which never arrived!" Part of it was that I felt that because I had no money to buy anything that I ought not to waste the time of any of the vendors. Now I would walk right up and chat, but back then that was quite beyond me. At that age, 18, I should have recognized that as a young weaver I could only profit from networking.
While I was there I happened upon a very interesting loom that had been set up. A middle-aged lady was weaving on it. I had never seen a loom quite that complex...lots of pulleys and so many harnesses (it was a 16-harness loom, which I'd never seen before!) When there was a lull in her weaving I approached her, terrified, unable to make any eye contact, and asked her what kind of loom that was. Unfortunately, she turned out to be the one person at the show I interacted with, and she was not friendly. Without turning to acknowledge me she hissed "It's an AVL - what the hell did you think it was?". I asked her what an AVL was, since I had no idea at the time, but she ignored me. But I was so fascinated at the time that I just stood by as she resumed weaving.
That was the first time I saw an AVL in action. And the loom I received yesterday is *that* model of loom, from that period, when the AVLs were still new. I don't even think that they had the Compu-dobby yet.
When I do demonstrations nowadays, I always remember the unfriendly lady at the loom. I make it a point to be approachable and friendly, and to always be willing to share knowledge of the craft. It's so important in order to keep the craft alive.
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