Hi all,

I bought myself a double-bobbin Swedish boat shuttle from Bluster Bay, and I've been playing around with it this morning.  I'm having "issues" with it...it is SO low-profile, and so narrow at the front edges, that I'm tending to drop the shuttle through the bottom part of the shed without noticing, producing lots of skips.Other than that I love the shuttle, it's a joy in the hand (as all Bluster Bay shuttles seem to be!), and winds off smoothly without catching.  So does anyone have advice on how to avoid the skips?

I'm thinking that one thing I will do is switch the face that is being woven...I am weaving a 6-end broken twill with 5 of 6 warp ends up on any given shot, if I switch to raising only one warp thread out of six, this should improve matters substantially.  (I was weaving it 5 ends up so I could see the face of the fabric, correcting any errors along the way).  But what else can I do?

Tien

Comments

Wed, 01/27/2010 - 18:07

Sara von Tresckow

 The usual weaving wisdom for ANY loom or shuttle is to keep the number of raised shafts to a minimum to prevent just what you are experiencing.

You may need to hone your throwing technique. When doing warps that might have a tendency to produce skips, I make sure the shuttle leaves my hand with no downward momentum and clear each shed with an afterbeat. It I hear that dreaded sound of a caught thread, I stop and remove that row - inserting it again. Yes, this is all slow moving stuff, but it greatly improves your fabric.

And as far as the shuttle goes - the double quills may be unwinding with different amounts of pull which influence a smooth trajectory of the shuttle. Going "gentler" all around should also help.

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