Feeling a little Colonial

This past July, we took delivery of a rather large loom for a good friend of ours. They are currently living in Saudi Arabia, but plan to retire in the next few years and build a home not far from us.

The loom is  Leclerc Colonial 60" 8-harness. While half the weight of the Macomber Beast, it looks impressively large. It has been in my dining room and mostly untouched, except to swap places with the dining table during the holidays. We swapped it back a couple of weekends ago, so we could work on it.

In the last few days, I put a little over 500 heddles on the first four harnesses, and the husband was kind enough to remove the apron and attach the sectional rakes to the back beam.

Once the rakes were on, I measured out 60 two-yard pieces of cotton cord and attached them to the beam. I needed one for each 1-inch section. These hold a bundle of ends for each section. It was a job.

While I worked on that, the husband tied on the rod to the front beam, which has previously been attached by only three strings. He looked for new rods at Home Depot, but none were long enough to accommodate this loom.

This was a tedious task, and he did an EXCELLENT job! I am so blessed to have a man willing and able to help me with all my weaving adventures.

We also installed new springs to the backs of the treadles and add new treadle hooks for the tie up. The ones that came with the loom were different lengths, and there were not enough for ten treadles.

Yesterday, we beamed ten yards on sectionally (YAY!).

Last night I began threading the heddles. By this afternoon, I had those done, sleyed the reed, lashed on, and began weaving.

The plan for this project was nine or so plain weave tea towels measuring 22" wide and 34" long before hems and shrinkage. I decided to do a combination of 8/2 cotton threads in blues and browns. My sett is 24, and I have 528, not including 2 floating selvages.

These will actually be kitchen towels I am planning on using in my own kitchen, instead of giving them away or saving...

I hope my lovely friend does not mind, but here is a shot of her at the loom, after we put it together last summer!

For those keeping track, each of the three floors loom at my house presently has tea towels warped. The total towel count should be 34!

In knitting news, I am on hat #6 from the previous post. Once they are all done, washed, and blocked, I will share.