12 Shaft Table Loom - BAH HUMBUG!!!

They have weather in Dundee. One side of the house looks out over the Firth of Tay and the storms clouds coming roiling in blackly. But it is often the case that, if you look out of the other side of the house over the moorland, you see a pale blue sky with mackerel clouds. The sunrises and sunsets are great - this is a sunset.

This is lichen on a fallen tree, taken with a macro setting. The photo shows an area about 30 by 40 mm.

I have been walking Jake in the fields nearby and there is lots to see, even black pheasants which are a local speciality. There are badgers setts on the edge of the fields.

I finished warping up the 12 shaft Leclerc and started weaving. There are problems  - two of them. The first is that the loom has been constructed by taking three fiour shaft sections and mounting them one behind the other. This means the distance between Shaft 1 and Shaft 12 is large. I had a look at my niece, Cally's, 16 shaft Louet yesterday and the distance between Shaft 1 and Shaft 16 is about one third of the distance between my Shaft 1 and 12. This leads to nasty shed problems because there is not that much distance between Shaft 12 and the back beam. So problem one - a poor shed and this means winding on frequently

Problem 2 is rather different and although I see it, I do not know why it occurs. I warped up the Megado with Diversified Plain Weave in the same threads 2/6 and 2/20. I used a 15 dents per inch reed and put 1x2/6+2x2/20 in each dent. This wove up balanced. The reed I have with the 12 shaft is 12 dents per inch. So I warped up 15 epi - and it was much too closely sett when woven - very crammed. So I resleyed to 12, that is, every dent holds 1x2/6 + 2x 2/20. While it looks okay, it is far from balanced and really it looks as though 8 or 9 would be better. In both cases (Megado and Leclerc) I put on a 9 yard warp. The only thing I can think of it that I can get a good tension on the Megado and not on the Leclerc and that I can't beat as hard on the Leclerc.I have stopped weaving and am thinking. I might put on a 10 dent reed when I get home but that will mean reducing the number of pattern repeats to 7. I started with 10!!! The width of the loom is all used. While I could live with this, six people are going to be weaving on this warp and I would like the warp to be better. Oh well, I will think it over. But I think I am heading for resleying on a 10 dent reed.  I have 14 samples to weave and I was aiming for next Saturday, the first day of the annual Guild weaving course. But I have realised that there is no special reason to take the loom in then - the following Saturday will do as everyone will be sorting out their own looms on teh first day.

As I said above BAH HUMBUG!!!