Tuesday 22 April 2008

Rigid heddle tension

Just been looking at Siubhan's blog - the answer to your "can I take the rigid heddle weaving off the loom?" is "don't worry".
I have woven a couple of braids that were really too wide for my loom, so the unwoven warp kept falling off the shed sticks and mucking up the tension. So I just unwound a bit, evened it up and then rewound it. The braid I am currently weaving is not only too wide but has a cotton warp that has absolutely no forgiveness in it - I have had to unwind it several times and reattach it to the apron - and I can see that I will probably have to do it again.
So if when you take the braid off the loom the tension goes wonky, just even it out and reattach it to the apron - this is much easier if you have someone to help you by holding the other end. And as it looks like you are using a wool warp it will probably have enough forgiveness that you won't need to reattach it completely
By the way, the braid looks georgeous :-)
Estrid
PS If any of this doesn't make sense - email me

3 comments:

Jahanarabanu said...

This is stellar information. Thank you so much for sharing this information with us all. It's great to see others using the blog!
I agree 100%. I think Siubhan's apprehension is about this has to do with her having to help me retension my massive wool weaving project! You are correct that retensioning a much smaller rigid heddle piece. You are also correct that Siubhan's piece is amazing!
Namaste,
Jahanara

Michelle said...

Thanks!

This is good to hear. I will be taking it off the loom to transport to DW. I haven't made a loom like yours, Estrid, but am using my tablet weaving loom.
The warp is cotton, which I was hoping would be a good thing and easier to retension than wool. So far I've not had a problem with tension but then I've only done a couple feet of it so far.
The main complaint I have so far about the rigid heddle brocade is that I cannot find heddles fine enough to make relatively thin silk braids. At this point I'd hate to have to revert to tablet weaving.

Gilbere Du Chateau La Mer said...

Can you post a picture of the heddle and a diagram of the heddle you need as I am sure we can find or make the required part. If it is realy difficult to make I might have one professionaly made for you in exchange for some silk trim