The Warp From....

...purgatory?

To be honest, I have had worse warps.  Truly.  But I'm under critical deadlines and having to fight with not just the warp but the loom, too?  Not fun.

Weaving is supposed to be fun and enjoyable.  This warp is turning into everything but.  More like grit-teeth-and-bear-it.

But the cloth is so nice and I just know it will sew up into some really comfortable summer tops.  And I love the colours.  They are all my favourite clothing colours and will go with everything in my closet.  Since I have two conferences to teach at this summer, I'd really like to have something handwoven that actually fits me, and with a sewing tutorial from Kerstin, I just know I would be a happy camper.  If I can just get the cloth woven!

So I have persisted.  Last night I gave in, realizing that no matter how much I pulled the slack warp ends up they must have gone onto the beam much looser than the rest.  So I started isolating the culprits and hanging weights off of them.  I think I've got them all now and they should not be a problem for so long as I continue to weave on this 30 yard warp.  I'm being entirely honest here - I may not make it through to the end.  I've already warned Doug that I may just cut it off and sacrifice the yarn to the loom gods.

But the loom has also been giving me fits.  It started out with the cable for shaft #16 jumping out of the finger and my weaving several inches with no 16 in the tie up.  Twice.  At which point I changed weave structures to something that would show up if 16 didn't engage.

Then 'extra' shafts started lifting.  Or wrong ones.  At that point I gave up last night.

This morning, refreshed after a decent night's sleep, I watched the loom carefully and extra shafts started lifting again.  Since the loom had been idle during the time of year when the humidity changed, I knew the loom may have 'shifted' somewhat and made a tiny adjustment to the sweep arm.  Usually it 'backs up' from the force of the lift so I just nudged it ever so slightly toward the rear of the loom and tightened the sweep arm down again.

And then shafts started to lift and drop (mostly towards the back of the loom) so the black box got tweaked ever so slightly towards the loom, just at the back.

Since doing that the shafts appear to be behaving so I've got fingers and toes crossed that it is now a happy camper.  I'm nearly finished sufficient fabric for one summer top.  Just trying to decide if I ought to weave another couple of feet to be on the safe side.  This cloth does have flaws and I need enough length that I can cut around the worst of them....

The good news is that I've gotten some of the information I need for the upcoming events/projects and can go ahead with planning for them.  It means more administrivia but I've managed to get some of the pile on my desk dealt with so I can start to focus on the new things coming down the pipeline.

Currently reading An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear