My wonderful husband Bob surprised me with a gorgeous 8 shaft Ashford table loom to expand my studio.  Today I'm assembling it but have a heddles question.  My common sense says to divide 640 into 8 and place 80 per shaft, but that won't work even for commonly woven things.  With 8 shafts, I'm thinking the front shafts should have the lion's share, but maybe I should be buying more texsolv heddles.  What do you think?

Comments

Wed, 09/23/2015 - 14:40

sally orgren

The short answer is put more on the first 4, less on the back 4.

 

What kind of sett range do you like to weave, or what kinds of structures?

 

What do you plan to do with this loom: sample, workshops, or "real" projects?

 

I like finer yarns, (5/2 - 20/2, at setts of 18-36), I do a lot of sampling, and use my 8 shaft table loom for workshops. 

 

So I keep about 100 heddles on the first 4, and 70ish on the last 4. The only "problem" with a lot of heddles is when you want to go full width with a low sett. There might not be room to scoot the unused heddles to each side and allow a clear warp path through the castle.

 

Instead of removing heddles, I will warp with empty heddles between the threaded heddles. An advantage to this is if I make a threading error, a replacement heddle is nearby. But some folks may not like threading around so many empty heddles if they always weave at lower setts. In that case, I wouldn't put so many heddles on the loom, just store them.

 

FYI, I record how many heddles are on each shaft and the date. Then, if I move heddles for a project, I just update the record sheet and note the date. (I hate re-counting a shaft's worth of heddles!)

 

Gee. Have fun with your new loom!

Wed, 09/23/2015 - 16:15

Sue in VT

Thanks, Sally.  Yes, this 8 shaft will be for real projects on finer yarns at this point.  I like you suggestion about putting more on the front.  As I love towels and runners, I think I'll go to my sources and check common shaft needs to see if 100 is enough in the front.  I appreciate your advice!  now it's back to the assembly.  I tend to be a perfectionist, so this is making me NUTS!