Twisp of Fate

Today is the fall equinox, and we have been busy getting ready for winter.  The firewood is all split and stacked.  A big windstorm brought down lots of dead pine needles last week, and Rick has been raking them up and getting ready for a yard waste run to the dump.  And finally, after nearly three years, we are getting stain on the cedar shingle siding for the shop addition and carport!  The fellow doing the work also power-washed the original shingles and put new stain on them.  The color isn’t a complete match (since the same color was put over old weathered shingles and new shingles) but it sure looks a lot better than it did before.

Up in the studio, I put a new warp for plaited twill scarves on the big loom.  I haven’t done these for a couple of years now – how time flies!  I promised one to someone almost a year ago, and it has to be done by the end of October.  That seems like a long ways off, but since I will be gone so much in October, it really won’t be.  And it won’t hurt to do some of these for the upcoming guild sales and holiday season.

perle cotton warp and tencel weft

Part of the process was doing some loom upgrade and maintenance on the 48″ Macomber loom.  This is actually the first time I have used the 4 additional harnesses I added to this loom, and I needed to replace the chains that the original four heddle frames hung from off the jacks.  Now all the frames are hanging at the same (and correct) height.

new chains hanging the heddle frames from the jacks

I also had a lot of trouble with the tie-up hooks popping off the lamms when I first started weaving the scarf.  Since it mostly seemed to be happening with harnesses 5-8, I knew it had something to do with using those for the first time.  My theory, which proved to be correct, was that the slots in the treadles were not completely smooth and were binding on the shafts of the “superhooks”, making them pop off the lamms.  (Don’t you love this weaving terminology?)

tie-up hooks connect the treadles to the lamms

So I took the time to smooth down the slots in the treadles with sandpaper, then smear some paste wax inside each one with a thin stick.  Now it is all working as smooth as can be and I am a happy weaver, not having to get down and crawl around under the loom every 5 minutes reconnecting a hook or two.