Well, The Loom Is All Set-up

I spent a good part of Saturday setting up the loom, I am so proud of myself, it was up in two hours and without the manual!!! It's not that difficult to set-up, as there aren't that many pieces, it was much easier than putting a knitting machine back together LOL!

After setting it up, I realized it needs a few changes, like new cords: the current ones are all fuzzy and stiff. I will also change the cords on the bottom (the ones that connect the lamms to the treadles. The screws and nuts are missing from the top part of the beater as well.
Of course the biggest change I want (but not necessarily needed) is to change the heddles to texslov! I am used to using them from my table loom days, and I love them! The current ones are wire, and many of them are bent or seem too long for the harnesses. With texsolv, I can colour them and draw the heddles with my fingers. I know they don't scoot along the frames as easily as metal ones, but I still love them. Thankfully, they aren't as expensive as I thought they were going to be. I will get 600 for now.

I gave everything a good wipe down with a damp cloth, and it's all nice and clean once again. One think I am perplexed about is, I set-up for a tabby (pretend weaving of course), when I pushed on the treadle, it raised the harnesses, but they stayed up, until I pushed down on the next treadle, then they stayed up, so on and so forth. Is this a feature of counterbalance? Or are the cords just too stiff, which is preventing the harnesses from lowering? I wonder.

The other thing I am a bit worried about is warping it. I am used to the Ashford method of direct warping (meaning straight from the warping board and through the reed), but somehow it's not going to work with this loom, for starters the loom has to be in front of the board etc. Works wonders with table and RH looms.

I really want to learn a good, easy but effective method. Since I will be warping all alone, I don't want a method where one has to tie bottles of liquid to the warp, or use a warping valet (I just don't have the space for that).
I have heard of the Harrisville tensioning device, and was wondering if perhaps that's the way I should go. Perhaps I need to do some finding out about it. I have the book "Warping all by yorself" by Cay Garrett, her's is a F2B method, but I would prefer to learn the B2F method.

A Loom At Last!

I have finally found a suitable loom and locally! It's a 36" Leclerc Fanny counterbalance. I picked it up yesterday after spending two and half hours dismantling it to it's bare bones, so that I could bring it down from the sellers attic, and in our car. In addition, I had to cut off the old warp with my small nail clippers as I forgot to take a pair of scissors with me:D.
It's in great condition and belonged to the sellers mom and aunt who were passionate weavers. Along with the loom came a bench (how lucky is that), and a box full of shuttles, bobbins, an electric bobbin winder (which isn't working, hopefully I can mend it), pick-up sticks, a whole bunch of heddles and other bits and bobs.

Of course it hadn't been used for a long time so it is fairly dusty. The only thing missing is a reed, so I will set-it up at some point, maybe today but won't be able to use it until I can afford to buy some reeds, I know I only need one standard reed, but it's nice to have a few different ones. I will go for an 8 and 10 for now, they will works for many different setts.

I am so excited to have a loom and so happy that I didn't have to go far for it. Gosh, those beams are big,heavy things, aren't there? It was exhausting carrying them down three flights of stairs, but somehow I managed on my own. It was a bit strange, as the house was empty (it's being rented), and I felt I had to appease the souls of the last owners and convince them that their beloved loom was going to a good home.