Please be patient! I am completely new to weaving, equipped with an 40yr. old Cranbrook 4 harness loom (an incredibly generous gift from a friend), learning mostly on my own. The loom is warped for my first practice piece for which I have used a 6 dent reed. The width of this practice piece is supposed to be about 14 inches. To start, I've been trying to weave several inches of "header" (still learning the lingo) but have pulled that out at least 5 times. As much as I try to prevent the sides from pulling in, they do anyway, reducing the width by about 1/4 inch on each side even though the resulting warp threads are neat and evenly spaced. I can see how the beater pulls on the warp threads as it comes forward, but I don't know how to fix it. I've tried using several different yarns, but get the same results. What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions? Thanks to all.