Plugging Along

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Diane

A quick drop-in now that I’m back from holiday to show a bit of the pre-Art Fair process.  Part of getting to know the AVL is to use it as much as possible – and this latest batch of towels threw another tool into the tool box:  the cloth storage beam.  After weaving off about 3 yards of cloth, there was enough to reach to the back, and it meant I got to do this:

that’s the warp coming off the warp beam above and the cloth going onto the storage beam below.  The storage beam has it’s own tensioning system so that as I advance the cloth it just winds on.  And, there’s only enough tension to keep the spring going – the actual tension on the just-woven cloth is delivered by the sandpaper beam.  It’s all very clever; and exceedingly simple to use.  Best of all, the rollers direct the cloth in such a way that my knees never interfere with it – a nice change from both the Gilmore and the Baby Wolf (curse of being a tall person!).

This also being a long warp forced me to keep changing tie-ups and treadlings so that I didn’t lose my mind.  I also tried different weft colors within patterns – all of which led to me discovering a lovely Color-and-Weave variation:

I absolutely love this pattern.  I may just have to keep one of these for myself.  Or, I’ll have to make more.

That said, it’s time to finish beaming the next warp (three sections to go) – it’s a variant of this warp in all browns/naturals.  Part of that is clearing the stash, part is to have more color options within a pattern group.

Once Fair is behind me, it’s time to get serious about the cotton shirt and also to start thinking about this:

I have a few thoughts about how to incorporate this into cloth – and I’m hoping that Sara and Deb will have more when I see them next month.  Next month!  Where does the time go?

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Working

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Diane

I’ve spent the last two weeks making friends with the AVL.  And when I say “making friends”, I mean putting serious effort into getting to know what works, what doesn’t, where things go wonky and how this lovely loom and I can find a way to work together.  It’s made me think differently about warping (more planning leads to a swifter execution), about threading (it’s slower – texsolv doesn’t fly across the heddle bars with a little flick) and about finding a rhythm in the weaving (treadling each shed is a TWO PEDAL operation rather than one).  All of this is different from the other two looms, but the reward is that once it’s set up, it’s much more conducive to just weaving.  While I can’t completely turn off my brain, it certainly becomes a much lower-level activity.  Almost like spinning.

The other big difference is that there’s a different level of flexibility.  On the other looms, I can just start randomly trying things – treadling patterns in particular.  I can do spontaneous network twill curves (ala Bonnie Inouye) and reverse treadling orders whenever I want.  Pattern generation on a whim is easy.  With the AVL, I need to plan ahead – including reprogramming the loom – before I can make changes.  Less wear and tear on my back and knees, but definitely not as spontaneous.  There’s likely another way to do this but I’ve not yet discovered it.  Time will tell.

All that said, am I happy with this loom?  Yes.  Absolutely.  Having the constraints of planning is good for me – and being able to execute my ideas quickly is also good.  I also appreciate the obvious effort and thought that have gone into the design and manufacture of the loom.  The engineer in me is kept happy.  I do have a few bones to pick (why, oh WHY can’t I *SEE* what the dobby is picking when I’m seated at the loom?) but that’ll just lead to me making modifications at some point.  It’s a tool, so why not?

I also owe an answer to “what’s next”.  Given that the power is going out soon, I may defer answering that question until I can get a little more time with power.  This also may be an opportunity for me to sit down and get some quiet time to work out my thoughts on the subject.  There is much to do, you see, to turn the notion into a workable plan.  While I would normally do this as part of a run, my legs ache in that “marathon training” way and it takes concentration to not get lazy and trip.  So a quiet few hours spent planning wouldn’t go amiss.

All righty then.  There’s coffee to drink, a shower to take, and then some planning/writing to do.  Maybe I can work in a stop at IKEA and Office Depot, too.  :-)

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