Dressing The Loom 2

Day 175: With the hardest part behind me, yesterday I settled in to finish dressing the loom. Because my 15-dent reed was too short to accommodate a 36-inch width, I used a longer 10-dent, drawing two threads through every other slot. While in a plain tabby weave (over-and-under), this might create a "tracking" pattern in the fabric, weaving a twill will make it less obvious. It will be even less apparent when the fabric is fulled, i.e., washed to expand the fibers of the soft 8/2 cotton. Once the ends were through the reed, I tied them to the front apron, keeping the tension even. The photo on the right illustrates a "shed," the space between threads when the harnesses are raised or lowered. The diagonal twill pattern consists of four sheds, created by raising harnesses 1/4, 1/2, 2/3 and 3/4 in strict sequence. This is where any mistakes in threading the heddles will make themselves known. If one should be found, the weaver has no choice but to unthread the reed and heddles if s/he wants to weave a flawless piece. Today, the weaving begins.