So, I'm working on my first draw loom warp - an eight shaft damask. I used "fat" yarn for this first warp because I was building the various draw loom components as I wove - 5/2 cotton set at 27 epi.
Eight shaft damask has floats of 7 threads. I am using 4 thread blocks to make the pixels smaller, but I'm wondering now if that was a good idea. I'm having trouble getting a balanced square. If I use 4 picks, the square is not "tall" enough. If I use 6 picks, it's a little too tall. I know it's supposed to be balanced, so what is wrong? Do I need to make the sett tighter, or loosen my beat? The problem with loosening the beat, of course, is that the square doesn't really fill in that well - probable because I've only got 4 threads in a block.
I've tried some experiments - using two blocks next to each other to create an eight thread block and then weaving 8 picks, but I just get the same result, only bigger. Does anyone have some advice here?
PS. I know, 5/2 cotton is probably not the best, but as I said this was a first warp and I was building the loom as I went, starting with the shaft draw, and then adding the single unit draw, etc. etc. The plan is to use this warp to tie on a finer linen warp later.