Hello All

 

I'm posting today because I'm in the process of writing a funding proposal for the weaving department I work in at the School of Textiles (Galashiels) of Heriot Watt University (Edinburgh).

What I want is to get four tabletop handlooms for the use of students who may have mobility problems, be they using a wheelchair, have a broken leg or simply be infirm for one reason or another.

Of course, being in the UK the distributors only seem to have Louet or Ashford looms, and the former doesn't include a 16 shaft option, which is the preferred thing as i wouldn't want to put any weavers at a disadvantage to the standing weavers.

These are very expensive things and I'm curious to find out if anyone has any experience of using any tabletop looms with mobility issues, or perhaps running classes for those who do.

Any advice or stories would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Andrew

Comments

Mon, 12/09/2013 - 15:54

Marianne88 (not verified)

I know that Woolhouse Tools in Canada make a 16 shafts table loom and also Leclerc Looms. 

Here is the web site for Woolhouse Tools:

http://www.woolhousetools.com/

For the Leclerc table looms, you could check the web site of Maurice Brassard and also Camillia Valley Farm . 

Tue, 12/10/2013 - 22:22

sally orgren

 

Although I am not disabled, I felt compelled to chime in on this query because I happen to do a lot of table loom weaving, and have for many years. That makes me a bit of an odd duck, because I know a lot of table loom weavers aren't considered to be "serious" weavers, but I am. I have also taken a lot of round robin workshops all over the U.S., so that has given me the opportunity to weave on a variety of table looms beyond what is normally available in my region.

First, why 16 shafts? I suspect you are thinking participants should have the capacity to explore complex structures if they take to weaving, or are already weavers. But I find that treadling that many shafts with a hand loom can get tedious and may be frustrating, even for the most passionate. I might consider obtaining two 8 shafts, one 12 and one 16 if you must have a 16. (If the looms are shared, it may take someone a lot longer to finish a project on a 16 than an 8.) 

Sure, you can always just thread a few shafts instead of all 16, but I wonder if the money upfront is worth the extra shafts that will remain dormant, and will you be left with a loom you can't resell for the price you paid? (I think most experienced weavers realize at 16, it's time for some type of mechanical assistance.)

Try this— line up 16 clip-type clothes pins on a rod, and treadle (flip) a 16 shaft pattern of modest (say an 8 pic) repeat, remembering to return the lowered clothes pins to the upright position before starting the next pass. See what you think. (Or see what your potential students think.) I can do 12 okay, but 16 requires just a few too many fingers than I own! 

So, maybe an alternative idea is to look at a computer driven loom (AVL?), and figure out a way to make the treadle action operable by tapping with an elbow, etc.? (Can the two treadles be moved to the table surface instead of the floor?) You could call and ask if they have current customers with special needs and how have they adapted the loom.

For some structures, the warp on the last few shafts of a more-than-8 shaft table loom can go a bit slack after weaving a while. (I am finding this on a current tied weave project with several hundred warp threads, but less than 20 warps are on shaft 12. After 2+ yards of a 4 yard warp, I now have to weight those warps separately on this particular project.) 

There isn't a huge amount of space between the back and front beams, and the sweet spot for the fell line is *very* small, particularly on the LeClerc Voyagers and Structos. If the looms aren't to be moved often, I'd look for a longer front-to-back ratio for a better shed (The LeClerc Dorothy can be ordered with a bigger frame to accommodate more castles). But too great of a distance between back and front, and the wheelchair-bound person may not be able to reach the back end of the loom to release the break. So then you may need to look for a tension break system with front release. (Many just have a ratchet system.)

The table loom beams are typically very small in circumference, so you have to keep to short warps (5 yards can be long, depending on the grist of the yarn). The fabric may accumulate too quickly on the small front fabric take-up beam, forcing you to cut the project off before you are ready. (Not sure what you have in mind for the students, real projects or small sampling.)

Also, another consideration about table looms is there are two kinds of mechanisms, the front levers and the side levers. LeClerc products have both mechanisms. (The Dorothy series has the side levers, the Voyager has the front.) 

The nice thing about the side levers, when you depress one, the others automatically raise up (return the shafts to a resting position). And with 8 shafts, you can mount 4 on each side of the castle, so you use both arms in a balanced way to change the shafts.

With the front levers (Louet, Ashford, Voyager, Woolhouse) the treadling is centered/balanced, but more action is required to weave. You must depress the levers for the desired shed, then return levers to the upright position if they won't be used for the next pass. I find this slows me down quite a bit compared to side lever table top looms (if speedy weaving is expected). Especially true with 16 levers.

Some weavers develop shoulder issues from table looms, especially if the chair-to-table height isn't appropriate. They are raising their arms too high (above their shoulder) to manipulate the levers. Hey, if someone doesn't have the use of their legs, you certainly don't want to injure their arms! 

On table looms, I am not a fan of the swinging beater, but would like to hear other's opinion. My experience is that it is hard to beat properly on any table loom because the beater doesn't have the weight or distance from castle-to-front to get the momentum needed, especially for finer yarns like 10/2 cotton, tencel, etc. So I tend to "squeeze" the beater against the fell, using my thumbs to grab the front beam while the rest of my fingers are pulling the top of the fixed reed/beater forward. This is impossible to do with a reed that is swinging within the beater. A swinging beater seems more appropriate for "placing" or tapping the weft into place, i.e. for scarves or looser woven articles—not so much for fabric that needs to be sewn into garments with hems, or will be used heavily, like towels. 

FYI, I believe Purrington looms have front levers with a special hand mechanism that releases all the shafts automatically before the next pic. I have woven on these looms and really appreciated that feature of their design, but I don't know if they come with more than 8 shafts. I also don't know if the concept/mechanism could be applied to other front lever looms.

So why do I weave on (5) table looms so much? Availability, portability, easier to see the relationship of shaft to structure, quick sampling, and far less loom waste than my floor looms, especially when using very expensive yarns.Ok. More than you probably wanted to know (sorry). Good luck!Sally

 

Wed, 12/11/2013 - 23:55

mrdubyah (not verified)

Sally,

Anyone who says tabletop weavers aren't "serious" doesn't know much about weaving.  Ever heard of Bertha Gray Hayes?

http://www.amazon.com/Weaving-Designs-Bertha-Gray-Hayes/dp/0764332465

She did all those patterns on a 4 frame metal structo loom.  Your other observations are right on the mark.  Sixteen frames seems excessive for the application.  

Thu, 12/12/2013 - 04:24

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

Andrew, you might contact Handweavers of London for feedback. They sell Ashford and Louet table looms and have weekly courses and special workshops and a diploma course. Both Ashford and Louet make front lever looms that I think would be preferable by far to the side lever models in your situation.

You could also consider the Louet Magic Dobby loom. A friend of mine used that from her wheelchair. She had the computer-assist model. I used a Harris table loom a bit while in London recently and it was not comfortable. These are readily available used in the U.K. but would not be ideal for weavers with limited mobility.

Good luck! Bonnie

Thu, 12/12/2013 - 09:28

Andrew Kieran (not verified)

Hello All

 

First of all, thanks for the feedback, it's very helpful.

Secondly, to allay the concerns of those who feel that 16 shafts is too much, I should clarify the exact application here. The purpose of these looms is not to produce lengths of cloth or useful pieces of fabric such as scarves. The purpose is for design, and the students use their looms, whether tabletop, floor, wide or narrow, to produce A4 (or smaller, owing to circumstances) woven samples of fabric for a specific market purpose (interiors, dress, suiting, etc). The reason I want 16 shafts is because it is typical for our other students to use 16 shafts, it allows them a good deal of design flexibility, and a 16 shaft loom is not unusual in the industry. It should also be noted that it gives them the option to do things like multi-block interchanging double weave and mixing a variety of satins/sateens/varying twills, which is a very useful skill for them to develop should they choose to continue with weave in 3rd and 4th year at which point the knowledge of how various different weave structures play together come in very handy on the Bonas Jacquard rapier loom.

I recognise that changing 16 shafts on a table loom can be a pain in the B-hind, but I suspect that it wouldn't be too difficult to add an adaption onto one of these looms to give the effect of having a multi treadle loom by using various cords which can be locked into place, lifting a number of shafts at once.

I was also tending towards the front lever looms, as they do seem a lot more sympathetic to the back than the side lever ones. I too have used a harris loom and while they're very sturdy and reliable looms, they're not the best for shed changing.

As for tension problems and selvedge issues, it's not a huge deal as it's typical for students to cut off every few samples, wash them and see what happens before tying on and continuing weaving. It's an iterative process.

 

I think I probably will contact the handweavers studio in london and see what they have to say. On the other hand, now that my attention has been drawn to George Weil, who stocks the louet dobby, I may have a look there too. Looks like that loom could certainly be used with very little modification for this purpose

I'll let you all know what we get and how it works out :-)

cheers

 

Andrew

Thu, 12/12/2013 - 17:02

sally orgren

...and that is why I have a 12 shaft. However, sometimes I get too exuberant in designing. When I take the draft to my floor loom for yardage, I have to use Tim's Treadle Reducer to come up with a reasonable treadling pattern.

If designing for industry tho', again I am wondering if a computer assisted loom would be more appropriate, and make it more even-steven with the other students on floor looms? Designing multi-shaft drafts is pretty easy on a table loom, but designing them to weave off efficiently is thinking about structure in a different way.

---------------

And yes MrDubya, walking in the shoes of BGH I weave on my two 240 Structos all the time. (Like last night.) Again, when I am excited to try something, a table loom is more likely to be open. So the next thing you know, I am putting on a 3-6 yard warp to try all the possibilities and then regretting that decision as I tediously weave it off ...especially when I get into multiple shuttle weaves... ;-)

Again, good luck Andrew! Your program certainly sounds exciting to me.

Mon, 12/16/2013 - 05:00

loomyladi (not verified)

Visit Purrington Looms at www.purringtonlooms.com  They have a 18", 16 Shaft, front level table loom.  It is also available with add on legs.  I have not been a fan of table top looms until I used a "P," it has a wonderful release mechanism that takes the hassle out of changing shafts.  You can contact Bruce at [email protected] if you have any questions. 

Sun, 12/22/2013 - 01:51

jj50 (not verified)

AVL has a new Little Weaver 16" table loom with up to 24 shafts. If the primary purpose is design, it is the most flexible and easy to use.