Finally, the 54 cm pattern heddles arrived as well as more long eyed ground heddles. I’d hate to be short when warping up as I can’t really just get them from the corner shop! So now I had to get down to the nitty gritty of balancing the height of the ground heddles with the pattern heddles and sort out the lamms and try and create a big enough shed. No small task, I felt. After putting the extra hundred long eyed heddles per ground shaft on, I then tied the lamms to the treadles in the five shaft satin damask tie up with one shed going up and one shed going down per treadle. First disaster.

The Lamms ready to be tied up - twelve in a row!

All the lamms started to have arguments with each other as I only had six holes drilled in the treadles and there were twelve lamms. I had hoped that as only two lamms were tied to each treadle it might work with the small number of holes. Off came the treadles and another six holes per treadle were drilled. I had separated the lamms with Teflon bushes to make their action easier but this did also spread them further apart and I did have the whole twelve lamms on the same plane. Fortunately, the extra drilled holes along with using little pieces of steel rod to hold the texsolv cord in line with the lamm did allow the lamms to slide well past each other. A little adjustment was needed to stop the treadle from hitting a lamm with one particular movement but that bit was easy.

The lamms with their elastic keepers to help return them to the same level and the little bits of steel to allow them to slide past each other

 Next step was to hook up the pattern heddles and string some lines through the ground and the pattern heddles and check out the shed.

Me tying the string onto the warp beam

 I tied on to the front and back beam with some spare strong thread and threaded the heddles in between. I had made a guesstimate of where the pattern shaft hangers should go and this was not too far off so the next thing was fiddle, fiddle, fiddle, to get the pattern sheds at the right height according to the opphamta and damask book.

The path of the threads compared to the direct line from cloth beam to warp beam. Threads sitting in the bottom of the long eyed heddles in the ground and approximately the middle of the small eyed pattern heddles.

Once satisfied with the pattern heddle height and with the ground shed at it’s ( hopefully ) correct height I then pressed the sequence of treadles and “hey presto!” it worked. The threads were swapped at the appropriate moment for the tie down when I pulled a pattern cord to change the position and as much as I can tell without the reed in place, the shed did not look too bad. I do have a nice and thin damask shuttle at the ready.

Pattern threads and ground threads doing their thing!

Seeing those threads move in the way they should was a wonderful feeling – a very satisfying conclusion to a number of  afternoon’s work. Now I had to determine the next step. More lingoes. I was getting a sore hand from flattening the ends of my pieces of steel that are my version of lingoes and I was also sick of blunting drill bits trying to drill through them to attach them with large paper clips to my pattern heddle group so I out sourced the drilling option to my father. Now he is blunting the drill bits and I am taking a break to build up the courage to do the final preparation before warping this loom and really taking the plunge. I have noticed now that the treadles might get in the way of the lingoes on the front pattern shed if I use long ones so the treadles have to come off again and have their ends cut off. Part three is on it’s way!

I first heard about this loom when Marion Stewart from my local Spinners and Weavers Guild emailed me. She attached a photo and my first thought was, ” I don’t need another four shaft loom and no, not counter balanced!”

The draw loom in its previous home

My second thought was, ”what’s that thing at the top of it?”

Loom at home at last

Considering the years of people and animals brushing past it daily, it was in pretty good condition but I still had to clean it up for my own satisfaction and to make it look like a loom should. Alice Hindson spoke mainly of creating patterns with the warp threads thus suggesting a second back beam as an essential component due to the different amounts of take up between the pattern warp and the ground warp.

The modifications of the loom began. A second back beam was put on and the loom cleaned up. Fortunately, as well as weaving I have an interest in wood work so I have a relatively comprehensive wood working workshop to clean up and modify/repair looms as required.

Meanwhile, I was reading another weaving book by Malin Selander and I noticed a book advertised in the back fly leaf that had the same loom as I have in the cover. I nearly fell over with excitement. Of course, it was Lillemor Johansenn’s ‘Damask and Opphamta’. Back to amazon.com and hey, presto! Book in mail. This book was totally devoured when it arrived and the modifications took on a different slant. Bye, bye counter balance, hello counter march. Hello to six ground shafts and lamms instead of four shafts and direct tie. I also lengthened the loom to allow room for more pattern shafts. Why limit myself to ten when I had space for at least twenty. Long term, I really like the idea of single pull as well but that will be after this one is up and running as it is.

The extended loom

 All this has happened over the space of over two years. I first got the loom before the loom room above was built and I would say before my second child arrived who recently turned two! Just recently the urge has come on me to continue so I started on the extra pattern shaft pull mechanism.

I had also discovered that the lamms were too close and tight so they needed to be separated. Due to the benefit of damask weaving with only one shaft going down and one up per treadling, I am hoping the lamms don’t have major arguments with each other. At this stage damask is the aim and then other weave types later on if I get bored with damask…if.

Back to the loom. Local woodworkers turned extra handles for me as I couldn’t find the right size at the hardware store and I didn’t have time to turn them myself. I made the frames and bolted them on then finally started to thread the pattern cords and handles together.

The half threaded pattern shaft pulls

 This has let me know where I need to separate the threads to prevent rubbing with a piece of smooth timber. I also need to make a raddle that can slot onto the the back beam for warping ease. I am half way through making the lingoes to hang off the pattern groups and I have ordered a stack of long eyed and pattern heddles so I will be set for most projects when the loom is finally warped up. To be continued……..