Monday 3rd May

GETTING A GOOD SHED ON MY JULIA AND OTHER THINGS

I hope everyone has had a good weekend, it seems such a short time since the Easter bank holiday and another looms at the end of the month.

This week I have warped up my Julia loom with some rug warp to make lightweight rugs for my kitchen and hall floors.  I am using up some wool from my stash to make these.  I have to admit to still wrestling with the countermarche tye up.  I now understand the theory but the practise is a little more tricky.  I have found a good article to download at http://www.weaverschool.com/ an American website full of good information.  This article explains how to tie up the loom and get a much bigger shed or space between the threads.  This is achieved by tying up the upper lamms so that the end of them, the end not joined onto the rod, is only about 2 and a half inches away from the bottom of the shafts.  The warp should pass through the centre of the eye of the heddles on the shafts to give you some idea of height of shafts.  Now, dont do what I did for the next step, as the picture in the article shows the loom from the back and I was tying up from the front!

The next step is to tie up the treadles and ensure that they are all at slightly different heights.  You have to start with treadle one on the left and make this the HIGHEST treadle and then tie up the rest so that each treadle is slightly lower than the next.  I did this the other way around and made the first treadle the lowest so of course with the eighth treadle being the highest the upper lamms were hitting the bottom of the shafts and the shed was not opening properly. 

I now have to go back into the workroom tomorrow and re tie the treadles so that they are in the correct position, I just couldnt face it this afternoon and besides with two smallies home from school its not really fair to be shut away in my workroom all day.  Life is just too short for that.

So think of me tomorrow, I expect the cats will learn a few new words and I shall let you know the outcome.  If this doesnt work to give a good shed then it is back to the drawing board, suggestions anyone.

On other fronts, I am spinning up a very nice cream shetland fleece, a good swapsie from my friend Yarnspider, see yarnspider.blogspot.com, thanks friend.  This is spinning up into a very fine thread.

I am still knitting up a garter stitch shawl in Noro sock yarn, pictures to follow and that will go into the shop later on.

Next week I am heading down to Cold Harbour mill in Devon to collect some very nice finespun merino yarn which will be perfect for weaving in the weft.  Some serious hand dying will be following this.  For anyone interested in seeing Cold Harbour, it is a working spinning mill and they sell lots of yummy alpaca yarn which is spun in the mill and dyed and also some lovely machine woven throws and other accessories.  Well worth a visit and very reasonable to go in.  A lovely cafe on site as well. 

Have a good week.