Hello all:

Quick question from a beginning weaver, my wife is starting her first project, a red and white checked dish towel, 1" stripes (15 epi) that is 17" wide on the loom using 8/2 mercerized cotton. We are using a used LeClerc Nilus loom that I did my first project on which was a bread cloth using same warp materials, only different colors. Here is the issue, on one side of the towel, her left, the weft stripes are curving upward (towards the warp beam) and creating what we refer to as a bit of a smile in the weft stripe. The right hand side seems to be fine. We are not using a temple at this point (though we may try that next, the one we have is too long for this project it turned out). We recently spoke to a friend who used to weave years ago, and their thought was the warp has an uneven tension on that end of the warp (we tied the ends at 1" intervals to the cloth beam, following the stripes). I also noticed as you bring the beater up to the fabric it seems to have equal amount of draw in from either side to the reed. We ran our hand over the warp before and after tensioning it prior to the first throws of the shuttles, and it felt pretty good to us (but again we are new to this).

So, anyone had this experience as well, or know how to correct this? Since we are just starting the project and we put extra length of warp on the loom we could go ahead and cut off the 6-7" we've done so far and start again if indeed this is a tie-up tension issue. Or would a temple correct this, our introductory weaving class did not cover the use of temples so we are a bit unsure of its use.

Hopefully the attached picture will help with my description (the oversized temple we have is laying on top so you can more easily see the issue, but you can also see it as the fabric is passing over the breast beam), thanks in advance for any of your thoughts on this

Mike and Mary in MD

Striped Towel

 

Comments

Mon, 01/03/2011 - 06:18

Claudia Segal (not verified)

Hiwhen weaving, you are pulling the  Mike and Mary,

I agree with your friend. Either it is tied tighter on the left side or are not allowing enough angle when bringing yarn across the warp.  A temple is used when you have draw-in on the edges, it will not help with tension  problems.  It may have happened when you beamed the warp OR when you tied onto the closth beam. 

So, what to do.  Is this your sample?  Did you make a sample when you put this warp on the loom or before?  You could, as you suggested, cut this off and reattach.  You could also add weight to the area of the warp that is adjacent to the left side.  I have had this happen and found that by adding weight to the cloth beam on the left side where it is "smiling" can help out.

If you do cut off the weaving already completed and try to retie to the cloth beam, I suggest you consider lashing on sso you can control the tension better and achieve an even temsion. 

Good luck and keep us posted.  The picture was a great idea.  It might be easier to diagnose with the temple lower on the cloth so we could see the entire fell line.

Claudia

Thu, 01/13/2011 - 03:29

mnmpasq (not verified)

Claudia,

OK, so we cut off what we had done so far (our new dishrag instead of towel:)) and re-tied onto the cloth beam (we dressed the loom front to back initially as well). After spending alot of time trying to ensure the tension was uniform across the warp we began weaving again, and after about 5-6 inches the same pattern was emerging, on the left side starting almost at the center, the stripes were getting wider and wider than the right side. At this point you could feel a slight difference in tension from the left to the right (left side being a little bit looser).

So this brings us to the thought perhaps we wound onto the warp beam incorrectly. We have over the last week read several of the books we have on warping and reviewed our notes from our initial class on weaving, and two possibilites come to mind for us - 1) as we used lease sticks when winding on the warp, perhaps they were not evenly tied on both sides (if you exaggerate and think of the two lease sticks in a V shape instead of parallel to each other, the threads closer to the point would have more tension then the ones at the open end) and/or 2) we needed to apply some resistance for the warp at the front of the loom (holding onto the warp as it was rolled onto the warp beam through the lease sticks). This is where there seems to be differences of opinions - some books say to hold onto the warp as it is wound, others say don't touch it.

So, before we cut off our next dishrag and try to retie onto the cloth beam again, this time we thought we would unroll the whole warp and start the process from the point the warp is just tied onto the warp beam. But - to hold the warp as it is rolled or not - that is the question. Any suggestions from the experts??

Thanks for any help, this is appearing to be more of an art than a science and if that is the case I am wondering if we can really do this.....

Thu, 01/13/2011 - 14:33

Claudia Segal (not verified)

If you choose to unwind the warp and re-beam it, you will need to first UN weave everything you have woven.  Otherwise, you will have twice the tension problems you do now.

My favorite method of warping was developed from several books and teachers and ALWAYS involved adding tension to the warp as you beam it onto the back beam.  I suggest you take a look at Peggy Osterkamp or Laila Lundell's Big Book of Weaving.  Peggy has great tips HERE and an article with diagrams on Beam your warps under tension which may help.

In addition, most of our Cyber-FIber teachers offer private consults.  I suggest you contact Mary Rios or Amelia Garripoli and see if you can do a webcam, chat meeting to determine what is going wrong.  In this meeting, you can use your webcam (assuming you have one) and, in real time, work on problem solving with an experienced teacher who can come to your home and see your loom.  

I hope these suggestions are helpful.  Hang in there, this is a subtle process and once you get the hang of it you will be fine.  Problem solving is most of the battle.  You can add more pressure at the cloth beam to reduce the "smile" but it would be better to get the warp beamed properly.  I'm not sure about your lease stick issue.  I keep mine tied onto the back beam which, on my Glimakra, is just above the warp beam.

Claudia

Sat, 01/22/2011 - 17:42

lkautio (not verified)

Make sure you beam with paper or sticks to separate the layers.

Check to see that the loom is square.

You may be throwing harder with one hand than the other, causing one selvage to be tighter or looser than the other.  This should show as a bit more draw-in on one side than the other.  Sometimes you can compensate by sitting off center about 4 inches.

You may not be grabbing the beater in the center with both hands.  Put a yarn marker in the center and make sure each hand grabs in the same place.

Sometimes it is hard as a beginner to find differences in tension by patting.  Tie a small weight onto a paper clip.  Hang it in various places across the warp.  If the deflection is significantly different, the tension is different.

I apply tension to the warp constantly as it is wound on, either by hand or adding weights.  I tie my lease sticks so that they can move with the warp (they ride in the cross of a long shoelace tied in a figure 8 or suspended from one side depending on the loom) - that way a caught thread won't break.  Another method that works for some is "crank and yank" - wind one revolution without a lot of tension, then yank the warp in small bundles, one by one, all the way across the warp.  It is slow, but works if you yank on every revolution.

You might also check the sleying (number of threads per dent) and see if you happened to change the sleying between the two selvages.

Good luck!

Laurie Autio

Sat, 01/22/2011 - 18:28

Joanne Hall

If you have checked everything else that has been suggested, you might try to throw the shuttle faster with the left hand. The looseness of the warp threads is usually caused by throwing more slowly.   The selvage weft will be looser than when you throw quickly.  Iif the weft if loose, there will be less take up in the warp, causing the warp threads to loosen.  It is very hard to correct this after it starts, so tighten the warp on the cloth beam and try to continue.  Yes, a temple will prevent this.

Joanne

Wed, 01/26/2011 - 01:09

suzyhok (not verified)

I've been weaving for over 30 years and I was so pleased to see Peggy's TIPS.  What a find!  I've bookmarked it for me... and to share with others...  Thank you so much for sharing this.

 

... Suzy