Onward

I didn't weave last night - too tired, too involved in meal prep, and too indulgent of television.  ;-)


However, I *did* weave quite a lot the night before last.

I went downstairs, having fixed the three twisted warp threads (by twisted, I mean that they were threaded in proper sequence, but somehow I ended up having sleyed them in the wrong dent).  And when I went to weave, it all looked better but I kept having a weird problem with one floating thread on shaft #8.  I separated the thread out and looked through the heddles and cross sticks to see what was happening.  And I lubricated the dobby head and upper rollers as well, and even looked at the chains below to see if there was something else causing this.


Then I realized what it was: another warp thread sleyed into the incorrect dent.  Fixed it, and it's looking fine now.  I noticed that there is another place where there's a warp thread missing somehow (I just missed one heddle on one harness while threading).  This is also an easy fix, though it entails adding a warp thread and attaching it to a weight hanging off the back beam.  I think I can drape it over the back beam roller, and pin it into the web after threading and sleying it.  It's not that big of a deal, and after wet-finishing it would be minimally visible, but there's something about leaving it unfixed that smacks of sloth, and I don't like that.  So I'm going to wrap it around an old film canister and weight that with a few large metal nuts.  Then the web will be flawless.


I also added another 5-lb weight on the weight array suspended from the cord that keeps the cloth storage beam tight.  That seemed to help!  Also, brushing and retying the warp bundles really did take care of most of the odd loose threads.  Annoying, but it was my own omission of the brushing that caused it, and luckily it's a known quantity, so it can be fixed.  And fixed it was.  Just that little bit of extra care did the trick!

This time I started using the temple only about 1/4 inch into the weaving, after about six or seven weft shots.  The result is that I don't have the usual little bit of draw-in that I have had in the past when I start using the temple about three inches into the weaving.  Much more consistent this way. 


I also adjusted each of the shafts so that one or two heddles on each side are now pulled over the top hook - since the AVL requires heddles near the edge of the shaft in order for the pull against the lower springs to be consistent (and not tilt), and because the aforementioned heddles had been creeping towards the center of the shaft and causing weirdness and skipped threads, I drew one or two heddles over the hook.  On the top shaft slat, the heddles are on the outside of the hooks; on the lower shaft slats, they are on the inside of the hooks, so that they are rather 'trapped' in position, and will not creep.  I noticed an improvement as soon as I resumed weaving. 


Other little things to watch out for: when the side wires of shafts get caught on adjacent shafts; when heddles get tangled; cables jumping off the pulleys up top when more than 9 shafts are lifted simultaneously; the cloth storage beam apron getting caught on either the lower sprung parts of each shaft or caught on the green cables coming off the treadles.


And squeaking.


It was getting very loud and squeaky, so I put more Sslip compound on the metal shafts holding the wooden rollers, and it was much quieter!


I think I might use a piece of paper to lubricate between the upper pulleys that carry the cables, and as much as I can on the metal axles carrying those pulleys.  Also the abutting sides of the dobby fingers.  And generally - I find that little tiny lubricated places make for easy lifting of shafts and a smoother process altogether.