Two for Three!

Last night, the sweet husband tinkered with my friction brake and got me going again!

Beast is up and weaving like a dream. We did not need to switch out the cable, but that is still the long term option. The current plan is see how he behaves.

While I was dead in the water, I counted and recounted my smaller B5 hooks. 

In the last couple of weeks, I discovered there are different sizes of Super Hooks for Macomber looms. The Beast is a B4 at 56”. The smaller Lil Miss (32”) and Meg (24”) are B5. There is not half an inch difference between the B4 and B5 hooks, which are used to attach the treadles to the lamms. 

To be perfectly honest, I never noticed the difference. 

In early August, I placed an order with Macomber to spruce us the newly acquired Meg. She needs aprons, super hooks, and beater pads, as well as a sectional beam. When Linda emailed me list of items with prices, she identified the hooks as B5 super hooks. 

This struck me as odd, as I had no idea there was any reason to differentiate B5 from any other, although I knew there were old style hooks versus the super hooks. 

A quick internet search led me to Sarah Haskell’s blog and this post identifying all the different sizes and types of hooks. 

I immediately took every hook of all the looms to compare. 

Oh, my!

I had 65 B4 super hooks and 24 B5 super hooks. 

Bottom line: if had enough B5 super hooks only to do plain weave on two looms, but not enough to do a pattern on either of the smaller looms. 

Pattens typically require four hooks per treadle and they are both 8 shaft looms. 

There were enough to do a four shaft pattern on one of the loom, but I needed a bunch more. 

So, I promptly emailed Macomber to acquire 65 B5 hooks for a total of 89 for two looms. That should give me a few extra. 

Of course, in the meantime, I did not have enough hooks to use Meg. 

While I was waiting for the husband to come home and help me with the Beast, I pulled out the hooks and studied them a bit. 

When I posted in the FB Macomber Loom Owner group about the different hook sizes, a lady reported she learned the hard way, as using different size hooks broke some of her treadles. 

Thus, that was not an option, even though that is what I had been doing. 

As the husband sat down to enjoy his supper, I brought him up to speed on the weaving issues and presented him with two of the hooks, one in each size. 

I explained I had more B4 hooks than I needed and wondered if there were a way to cut a few down to the B5 size, until my order arrived, whenever that would be. 

He raised an eyebrow and said “Maybe.”

Well, “maybe” is definitely not a “no.”

This morning he trimmed 8 down, and Meg is back in business!

Woohoo!

From left to right in the above photo are a B4 super hook, B5 super hook, and former B4 super hook trimmed to make a new B5 hook!!

I painted the B5 hooks to make the size readily identifiable. Once my order arrives, I will retire the newly trimmed B5 hooks and paint the official new ones the darker shade of polish. 

Now, if you will excuse me, I have some weaving to do!!