The Rigid Heddle Study group I belong to met this afternoon here at the farm and we spent the better part of the time figuring out what went wrong with my loom and how to fix it. Well, three heads are better than one and all is well in my
warped weaving world again.
We found that when I was trying to fix the warp myself, I wasn't taking in account that the opposite end of the loom had a slightly different thickness due to the fact that I had already been weaving. So...one set of hands worked as a guide while we fixed it.
We also had some tension issues so...since I didn't have an empty paper towel roll, I used a couple of toilet paper rolls (which Brother Bear seems to like to stack by the kid's toilet--don't ask) and I conveniently had some duct tape (camouflage, of course) to make the correct length. Yet another set of hands guided the yarn as the third set fixed the warp. HOORAY!
We did find that my weaving on the original towel was still off a wee bit so rather than hit another snag, I hem-stitched where I was at and had a smaller towel. It is hence-forth known as my learning towel. Now here is where we found where my original problem began. The apron cords weren't all the same length (which is how they came from the manufacturer). It was a very small difference in length but just enough to cause my tension to go wonky.
All is good now and my loom is ready for another towel.
On another note, we learned that if your tension is just slightly off, you can use a common household item like a fork to change your tension and correct. I was glad to know that all of us have been having issues with tension and it's all part of the learning process. Hopefully everyone walked away from our meet up with new knowledge...I know I sure did.
Terry found this out to help compensate for her warp. I have said it before and I will say it again, having a Rigid Heddle Loom is great because it is portable. All of us can easily travel with our projects and our loom bags aren't much bigger than our knitting bags. Just like our knitting meetups, having a group meet for weaving sure does make it more enjoyable, especially when you are learning techniques.
Yet another great meet up and a beautiful Sunday to get together...now, back to ignoring my housework so I can weave.
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