Hi everyone!  I am working on a 36 inch wide, 14.5 yard long warp (super wash merino wool) project.  I am about 90" in and I am having tension problems on the left hand side - I am getting slack...my finished cloth is becoming floppy (as it rolls on the cloth beam) on the left hand side....therefore my fell line is curving up on that side.  Is there any way I can put extra tension on the front side of the loom without screwing things up horribly?

Comments

Fri, 05/22/2015 - 14:29

Sara von Tresckow

You first want to assess the tension across your warp. If it truly is loose only at the left side, you could try putting a wedge shaped object in the roll at the cloth beam to take up the slack.

When continuing to weave, do pay careful attention to whether your loom is square, that you are beating evenly from the middle, and generally "nurse" your warp along until it is weaving evenly. 

As to the cause, it is hard to tell - you may have held the chain more firmly on one side than the other, the loom may not be entirely square (meaning this could happen again before you are finished), or some other reason. Whatever methods you use to correct your tension issues, do NOT hang things off the back of the loom - that will merely exacerbate the problem. 

Fri, 05/22/2015 - 15:37

laurafry

Like Sara says, the first thing to do is figure out why there is a problem. What did you use during beaming to separate the layers? Was it sufficient to keep the layers from cutting down into the lower layers? Is there an even build of the layers? Is the edge 'collapsing' on that side, causing different tension on those ends? Did you beam with sufficient tension? Are you pulling and plucking on the selvedge ends? If so, stop. Are you seating the weft around the selvedge well? If not, the selvedge ends might not be taking up at the same rate as the rest. And so on... Some photos might help to diagnose the problem... Cheers Laura