Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Loom Woes

I have had a problem with my warp unreeling from the back beam when I tap the brake to advance the warp. I finally put this backhoe tooth on the outside of the beam to add weight and reduce the problem. I realized that sooner or later, the dowel would break from the weight of this tooth and I emailed Gilmore looms last week.

I exchanged a couple of emails and also had a couple of phone conversations with Bob Allen, the current owner and loom builder. He explained that there were two design flaws that he inherited. Bob built Miss Millie in 2003 and by then had eliminated the notorious dipped shed that prevented taut warps, but he hadn't as yet devised a method to stop unreeling warp from the back beam. I had learned to tap the brake to keep the action to one cog tooth at a time, but I knew that wouldn't work for rugs.
When I originally talked to him a few years ago, he said that he had developed an anti-spin device and that if I would bring the loom back in, he'd install it at no cost. When I emailed him last week, he said that he had created his device as a kit and I could order one. I ordered two - one for Miss Millie and one for Maudie Mae. Ian and spend some time getting them installed this morning, but if you have a Gilmore, you know that yours doesn't look like this.

I warped like crazy this afternoon but couldn't finish before dinner. I have to spend the day in town tomorrow, so I won't get to finish and start weaving until Friday. I hate the whole thing about waiting. I am so anxious to see how this works.
Meanwhile, I've started knitting the fruits and vegetables for Alexia's toy kitchen. I'm at three tomatoes and a banana as of tonight.

And tonight, Ian and I watched an astonishing documentary from Netflix called The Hobart Shakespeareans. I was reminded of Stand and Deliver, only these were real kids with real tears, some of them mine. What a difference one person, one teacher can make, who chooses his passion to teach over the passion to make money.

7 comments:

Michelle said...

I know nothing about looms, but those are very cool fruits!

Theresa said...

Great knitted fruits! Bummer on the loom woes, but how nice that there is a fix for it!

Leigh said...

Unfortuante about the design flaw in the loom. It must be a relief though to be able to get a kit to fix it.

The knitted fruits & veggies are great!

I'll try to look for that movie too. Since we don't have TV, we do enjoy a good movie now and then.

Benita said...

My Harrisville does that when I tap the brake, so I have learned to loosen the front brake first, then tap the back brake release. Otherwise the spin is terrible!

I wonder if Harrisville has a fix?

Let us know how yours works.

Valerie said...

Funny the things that make us chomp at the bit. Hope the brake fix works just fine and you'll be in weaving heaven.

Funny, I was just wondering about the knitted produce when I got online to surf.

Life Looms Large said...

Did you see the new KnitPicks.com knitted vegetable purses??? I got an email about it today (maybe?) and it totally made me think of you. You're getting right on those veggies! That's great!!

I've heard about looms unwinding like that. I was terrified of my Toika and used to walk around back to advance the warp from there to prevent that problem. But when I was at Vavstuga, they showed me that Glimakra's don't unwind like that, and sure enough my Toika doesn't either. I know it is a pain to work on a loom when that happens.

I hope the fix works out well for you! I'll bet it will. But it will be good to see for sure!

Weave on!

Sue

bspinner said...

Love the fruit!!!

So happy there is a kit to fix your loom!!!