Hi. I'm a pretty advanced weaver, but I'm having fits.
I have a pre-AVL loom (16 shaft mechanical Ahrens and Violette) about 30 years old. I love this loom, but something is weird with the warp. It is shirt yardage in 16/2 cottolin (this is thin cottolin from yarnbarn, not 22/2 Venne, which is more like 8/2 cotton). The thread is fine and fragile. I get that...
I'm getting a lot of broken threads. At first they were at the edges. OK. Easy enough. Fixed that.
Now I'm getting a LOT of broken threads in the middle, mostly on shafts 11 and 12 (the last two I'm using).
The humidity is about 55-60% in the room.
Questions:
1. I'm noticing that one of the shafts may be sticking (like lopsided) sometimes. Could that be causing the broken threads?
2. I have not worked with this fine cottolin before. Would it maybe help to dampen the warp, like I do with linen? I can always use flaxseed dressing, but I haven't tried that yet. We had some flood issues last week so I've had to run the dehumidifier. Could that be drying the warp out?
Any ideas welcomed.
Allen