Okay, true confessions, I have gotten quite a few things done this week, some of which was weaving the Swedish Lace napkins and towels that I blogged about already on farmsteadstudio. I also had this morning, and early afternoon full of errands, and I just got in the door. My first thought was that I needed to get up in the studio and weave one of the bread cloths to show everyone! I try not to do that, you know, do something to blog about, I try to be real, the real me. With that in mind, I decided to post a neat little fix I did to the electric winder I have on loan from Lou Ann. But first a photo of the bread cloth warp ready to go!
My little contraption tames that pirn so that I can load it evenly and very quickly, so quickly that I had to start using the tension box to guide the yarn!
Now, a close up of my high tech tensioning device.
The stick under the L bracket puts the little rubber thingy at just the right height to support the end of the pirn. The rubber band allows me to move the bracket slightly to load or unload a pirn. There is a clamp holding the stick in place and firm. The hardest part was figuring out a way to let the rubber thingy spin with the pirn. If I used a small nut and bolt, it would tighten so much as it rotated that it would finally stop, and that is not good. I finally found the shortest metal screw I could find, added washers and a cap nut instead of the regular nut. That left just enough wiggle room to get the job done.
I had some carpet warp on a shuttle, and used that to spread the warp and check the threading. It all looks good!
While I was finishing the threading, it dawned on me that I was going to be using a counterbalance loom this time instead of the jack loom I used last time. I thought wow, you almost made a silly mistake, then I thought, hold on, I think I used the wrong tie up on the jack loom! Sure enough, when I check the draft, I had! So all those lovely napkins I gave as presents were upside down! They were beautiful just the same!
Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina
(If I do get a bread cloth woven today, I will post a pic.)
I have been using this winder off and on for awhile, I have even posted about it. It is truly a wild and crazy contraption, that needed to be tamed! It took a lot of thinking, researching different winders, and a few trips to the hardware stores to pick their brains, and this is what I came up with. It is not totally finished, but you get the idea.
Now, a close up of my high tech tensioning device.
The stick under the L bracket puts the little rubber thingy at just the right height to support the end of the pirn. The rubber band allows me to move the bracket slightly to load or unload a pirn. There is a clamp holding the stick in place and firm. The hardest part was figuring out a way to let the rubber thingy spin with the pirn. If I used a small nut and bolt, it would tighten so much as it rotated that it would finally stop, and that is not good. I finally found the shortest metal screw I could find, added washers and a cap nut instead of the regular nut. That left just enough wiggle room to get the job done.
While I was finishing the threading, it dawned on me that I was going to be using a counterbalance loom this time instead of the jack loom I used last time. I thought wow, you almost made a silly mistake, then I thought, hold on, I think I used the wrong tie up on the jack loom! Sure enough, when I check the draft, I had! So all those lovely napkins I gave as presents were upside down! They were beautiful just the same!
Until next time, Happy Weaving, Tina
(If I do get a bread cloth woven today, I will post a pic.)
3 comments:
That is going to be a nice bread cloth. What an invention. Best thing is that it works.
You've made good use of that little winder! I'm glad it's working on your pirns. That little plastic cap seems to do the trick!!!
Pirn. I like saying Pirn. I also like how high-tech the rubberband is. Pirn.
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