Lesson #4

The top picture is what is called the heddles.   The threads are put through a heddle that is attached to what is called a harness, there can be a number of heddles on just one harness, this particular loom has eight harnesses on it.  Depending on the design draft, each thread gets put through the heddles on a harness in a certain order depending on the design.  For example, if I do a plain weave design and have 8 harnesses, then I will put a thread through a heddle on harness one then a thread through a heddle on harness two then a thread through a heddle on harness three and so forth until I get to harness eight, then I will start on one and keep going until I am done with all the threads.  The second picture shows the reed, which has slots(dents) in it that are evenly spaced, like this particular reed has 12 dents per inch, meaning that I can put one thread through each dent (space) and I will get 12 ends per inch or if I want to do 24 ends per inch then I will put 2 threads in each dent.  This is what makes your cloth with a close weave or I can make a really light fabric or lacy one.  The closer the threads are put together the tighter the weave structure of the cloth.  The reed also keeps the width of your cloth spaced correctly too.  Like the last project I did it was 12 ends to the inch plus I had the cloth 20 inches wide!  Which means that I had 240 threads total (12x20).  The last picture is the next step, which is to tie the warp onto an apron in the front of the loom, that will hold tension while I am weaving the cloth.   In this particular project, I did not have to thread through heddles because I am using the same design that I used on my last project plus the same ends per inch.  The only thing I had to do was tie onto the old threads in the back of the loom as I showed you on the last lesson, then once I am tied onto the old threads I pulled the new threads all the way to the front of the loom through the heddles and the reed.  If I had to do a whole new design then I would not tie onto an old warp, I would have to take each new thread and thread them through each heddle then take each thread and put it through the reed.

I still have more lessons.  So, stay tuned for the next lesson.

We are expecting 8 to 10 inches of snow, starting tomorrow and some places could even get up to 18 inches.  Here I thought the big snow amounts was done!  At least the good news is that after the storm it is supposed to get back up to above freezing and into the 40's again.

Take care all!