New adventures

Well, two weeks after my visit to Diss and The Saori Shed , yesterday saw a delivery to our house.

That decision didn't take long did it?  I was lucky enough that Kim at the Saori Shed had the loom I wanted in stock so it was here within two days.

First of all came unpacking and reading and re-reading.

The instructions that come with the loom are very clear and detailed but it helps if you really read them properly and pay attention to the photographs. It comes out of the box with only a few bits to hook on, clip on or slot on and a few bolts to screw down.

Once you've attached the bobbin winder you take hold of what's called the inside set which is the heddles (those stringy looking metal things), the reed and the warp on its support.  You may spot the deliberate mistake in the photo above.  Those hooks holding the heddles are supposed to fit through the holes on the heddle bar.  Error number one but not too serious as I eventually spotted it.  Happily I got the heddle the right way up indicated by the blue colouring across the top.

Unhappily I got this fitting of the warp roller wrong.  That lever is the brake and is in the wrong place at this stage.

This is what it should look like. It stops the warp roller from coming loose which turned out to be rather important.

 This is where things started to go a bit adrift.  You might be able to see above that the warp is already hanging rather loosely behind the loom.  

This pre-wound warp is supposed to go on really easily and normally it would but messing about with the roller meant that part of the warp sprang loose and I had a bit of a mess.  

It was looking a bit of a mess at the weaving end too.  You know how it is with something new and unfamiliar to you.  You think you have an idea of what needs to be done to sort it out but you're too scared to try in case the whole lot (of warp in this case, all 6 metres of it) ends up looking like spaghetti on the floor.  I gave up last night other than asking a Facebook group for some help which one lady in particular gave and which I had a go at (and which was sound advice.  

Today Kim kindly rang me up and talked it through and the answer, which I knew really, was to wind all the loose warp towards the front until I reached the tauter warp.  Then it was a question of pulling and combing at the tangles until it was all smooth and then getting a glamorous assistant aka my husband to hold it all taut while I wound it back on the warping beam.  Success!

That looks better!

Not my best weaving but so much better than I thought I was going to get to today and I didn't lose any warp! 

I am busy quilting too, have no fear, and I've almost finished a baby quilt.   No, not for me ;-)