Pipe loom project!

August 10, 2011

Through no fault of switching this warp from a backstrap loom to a pipe loom, I had a lot of problems with this it.  Threading sequence issues mostly.

It seems the warp was a little wonky tension wise also.  I find this to be problematic, especially on a frame/pipe loom.  In other words, one side of the loom is slightly longer than the other.  This means that to get even tension all the across the warp, you must crank one side of the loom up higher/tighter than the other.  This creates an angle in the top bar, which makes the warp try to slide to the side that is lowest, simply by gravity.  If you tighten it up enough to prevent most of this, it is too tight to warp face weave comfortably.  If it loosened to the point of comfort, on side of the warp is baggy and troublesome.  It is alot easier to have floats and missed threads in a very loose warp.  Lots of room for errors in general.  Plus it will look different from one side to the other side.

So here are pictures of what I could salvage from the project, be assured that I am back on my backstrap.  Working diligently on getting a workable system going again.  Pictures will be coming soon.

As you can see they are small and I sacrificed alot of the warp by starting over three times and trying to work out the 'kinks'.  This is the front side.

If you look closely you will see the back side of the one to the far left.  The green is double stranded with two shades of green, the white is single.  Notice how it made the white threads pull to an angle, kind of like little v's to make the design on the back.  Interesting.  I kind of like it.

These pieces have no particular destination at the moment, they are just in my box of things that will probably be gifted out, maybe even at Christmas.

Warp floats galore and a circular warp.

July 14,2011

My second circular - rotatable - warp. It is done in #10 100% mercerized cotton crochet thread, once again I have re-established that I don't like working with such fine yarn on a backstrap. This warp is 30 in. long x 2 equaling 60 in. total (front and back of what you can see) and it is just a little too short.  My objective is to figure out what length I need in a circular warp to use my feet instead of having to tie up to a fixed object.  The last one was 36 in. and was much too long.  I have also tried a 27 in regular warp and it was much too short.  Thus the in between of 30 in.  I think the next one needs to be 33 in.  I need more warp to wind around the brace beams at both the front and back ends of the loom.  This locks the circular warp in place so you can beat without the warp rotating/slipping.

I am also playing around with warp floats galore with my own designs.  So far just my usual hearts.  No chart just winging it.