Not enough heddles

Season 1 - Foundation · 4 replies · 2463 views · 5 followers

Catherine S

over 3 years ago

Hello, I am a newbie, dressing for the first time my new Jane loom for the Assymetrie Sample. It is absolutly stupid, but I wasn't aware that with 4 shafts thera are only 200 heddles instead of 280!
Looked like sooo many, i didnt't think about it at all.
Opening the sides of the shafts to insert more heddles seems very intimidating. Could I perhaps use shaft 5 and 6 for the remaining 80 threads?

I really like this School of Weaving, so glad, I am here!

Sandra Crompton Mod

over 3 years ago

Hi Catherine - I hate to tell you but moving heddles from one shaft to another is a skill you will need to develop 😉. If you don’t, you will always be choosing drafts that fit the configuration of your loom instead of you controlling what you want to weave on your loom. Extra heddles are a necessary investment in your weaving world - especially with new looms. Well loved and used looms will almost always have had extra heddles added. You can find heddles for your Jane here - https://janestaffordtextiles.com/product/texsolv-heddles-jane-loom/

In the meantime, you certainly can use shafts 5 and 6 - but I would spread them out throughout your warp to maintain even tension.

Catherine S

over 3 years ago

Thanks so much for the fast help! I will for sure get some more heddles, i just wanted to save my work, more than 150 Thread are already in the heddles, so spreading out seems no more an option.
So back to start, I will look at it as same bonus practicing opportunity...

Kelley

17 days ago

I've just had the exact thing happen to me. Am I correct that if I buy more heddles that I can add them to the shafts while keeping the threads safely in these 220 heddles already threaded? I'm using an 8 shaft Ashford table loom. One thought I'm having is tying new heddles on rather than opening up the shafts to slip them on. Yes?

Sandra Crompton Mod

17 days ago

If you have been threading from one side to the other - easy peasy. Order some more heddles - you will likely need them for most of the cloth you weave in your weaving life. If you started threading from the right to the left, you can just divide your new heddles up into 4 bunches and slip them on to the left side of each shaft. I haven't woven on an Ashford but I'm sure you will be fine.

Kathleen

17 days ago

I think on the ashford table loom, you have to completely remove the shafts to add more heddles. If your loom has shafts made up of two steel bars with wood frames on each end, it’s not possible to remove the left or right wood frame while the shaft is place in the castle. If you don’t need very many extra heddles, you could just make them and tie them on while the shaft is in place. When I was weaving on an ashford table loom, I bought extra heddles and put them on all of the shafts so that I would have enough for most projects I intended to weave. It was a real pain to add or remove the heddles, so I just left the extra heddles on each shaft just in case.

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Diane E

16 days ago

I agree Kathleen, a real pain to realise that you have not enough or miscounted or mis-threaded (especially so on the 16 shaft Ashford table loom).
So necessity being the mother of invention, and having become sick to death of tying on extra heddles when the going got tough, I have found that you can devise replacement heddles for when the shafts can't be removed by using texsolve heddles and attaching them to the top and bottom metal rungs of the harness/shaft with all sorts of nifty clip-on devices that I have utilised for the job. Anything from knitting markers to clip-on earring loops have been sequestered for this diabolical and devilish process. It is now easy peasy. Whew!

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Kathleen

15 days ago

Diane - That’s a great idea.

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