Classic Overthink

The numbers were all worked out, truly they were.

I also had the colors chosen and a warp ready to go!

I had a plan in place, and it was well on its way to execution.

However, I discovered huck lace in the interim...

In this photo, I am referring to the texture created by the huck weave, not the color or the stripes or anything else:

Of course, I wanted to weave it.

So much so, I threw my carefully made plans to the wind and began playing with numbers for a huck lace project, until..

Well, until I realized the huck lace I wanted to do was a four-shaft draft.

All of my looms are eight shaft, but on the 24" Meg, I only had enough heddles to do a full sized (20" to 24" wide) towel on all eight harnesses, not four.

Of course, I could have taken heddles from the last four harnesses and added them to the first four, but I had no desire to do that.

If you are wondering by what I mean with not enough heddles, I have 79 heddles on each of the first four harnesses and 75 heddles on each of the last four.  My total number of heddles is 616.

I have a 12-dent reed on that loom, which means there are 12 slots per inch. I typically weave 8/2 cotton at a density of 24 thread ends per inch. Thus, I pull two threads per each slot in the reed.

24 threads per inch times fabric 24" wide equates to 576 threads. I need one heddle for every single thread.

However, as I only have 79 heddles on shafts 1 through 4, I have a total of 316 heddles to be used on a four-shaft project.

The reason I don't want to add heddles to the first four shafts is simple.

First of all, it is a pain. Especially, if I am taking them off the last four shafts.

Secondly, while I could buy more and leave them on the first four harnesses, as I do on both the others looms, I am reticent to do that because my maximum weaving width is only 24". If I stacked the first four, they would be in the way if I wove anything wider than 20" using all eight harnesses.

Were this my only loom, then, of course, I would add and remove heddles as needed for each project.

Thus, it appears Meg is currently relegated to only eight-shaft patterns, as I do not wish to acquire more heddles or move them around.

Note: There are some 8-shaft huck patterns, yes, but those require a disproportionate number of heddles on the first harness, compared to the remaining seven.

Huck patterns will have to wait until one of the other looms is free.

I began a search for simple 8-shaft patterns to give this set of towels a feeling of texture.

Pinterest came through for me, and I decided upon this one:

It is obviously not huck, but I liked the subtle little diamonds. It was easy to remember, and I was off and weaving, testing different colors. 

Note: I also decided to weave this at 20 ends per inch. In a 12-dent reed, this means I sleyed the reed at 1-2-2 (one thread, two threads, two threads, and repeat). I also have a 10-dent reed on order.

I even played with the treadling a bit.

What I really like about threading point twill, is how changing the tie ups gives so many different options for weaving.

Speaking of tie ups, 

The 1960 Meg came with a lamm depressor or rather pieces of a lamm depressor. Usually, Macombers her age simple have a wooden dowel held to the loom with cotton rope.

I admit, the lamm depressor was a little sad. The wooden piece attached to the back was swiveling. I asked the sweet husband to make it stay put. He added another screw, and Voila! It no longer moves!

Here is a quick shot of Lil Miss with her original wooden dowel and her new lamm depressor.

I thought about ordering Meg a new one, but I decided to try to make her existing one work. I removed the treadle hook from the end of the one on Lil Miss, then slid the aluminum dowel rod off, walked into the other room, and attached them to Meg. It worked beautifully!

The treadle hook serves two purposes: a) prevents the aluminum rod from sliding off and b) holds the lamm down to enable the treadles to be attached to the lamm.

I may order an aluminum rod for the lamm depressor to give Meg one of her very own, but I also see no reason why these cannot be shared between the looms, either. 

While I was studying weaving drafts, I remembered I changed the threading on Lil Miss a month or so ago to a point twill. 

This is what I chose, although there are several treadling variations in that post.

This warp is actually some 25 yards long, so I have taken liberties to switching things up a bit, as I become bored. 

Well, while I was changing the tie up on Meg, I decided to go ahead and change the tie up on Lil Miss, as well.

This is the top of the fabric:

A couple of pictures of the under side:

And back to the top:

Not to be outdone, I picked up some cotton rag fabric, pre-cut for rugs and made several on the Beast, until I ran out.

I grossly over-estimated how far a few pounds of fabric would get me, so I knocked out a chenille baby blanket 36" x 42".

I still have several yards of warp left. As the rag rugs and blanket were done in plain weave, I had not changed the tie ups from the previous waffle weave project.

When I realized this, I said "Why not?"

I decided to weave the next baby blanket in waffle weave, using 8/4 cotton rug warp for warp and weft.

So far, so good.

Whew!

That's a lot of weaving.

I really should clean my house, though...