Monthly Archives: May 2009

Meditating on samples

By Tien Chiu | Published: May 31, 2009
Well, I finished the first 2 feet of weaving, plus an extra 12″ or so of throwaway fabric from before I got the tension straightened out.  I’m not quite sure what to make of it. The first thing I realized is that the picks per inch were significantly greater on the first sample than on the [...]
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Live-weight warp tensioning system

By Tien Chiu | Published: May 29, 2009
Sandra asked for photos of my setup,  so here they are: This photo shows the weight (30 lbs of iron plates) and the counterweight (3 lbs of iron bars).  The cord connecting them, which you can’t see, makes one full loop around the warp beam.  Two loops are what Kati Reeder Meek recommends in her book, [...]
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First foot woven!

By Tien Chiu | Published: May 28, 2009
I was having terrible problems with sticky warps this morning, and finally decided that the loose tension was to blame.  I wasn’t sure whether it was the brake band slipping on the WDL or whether it was loose tension on the warp beam, but finally decided to kill two birds with one stone and move [...]
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Debugging

By Tien Chiu | Published: May 27, 2009
Yes!  Unbelievably, I have finished threading all 2,304 heddles, sleying the reed, and  tying  on.  Now it’s time for my least favorite part of weaving: debugging. You know how that goes.  You spend countless hours patiently winding on the warp, methodically threading the heddles, impatiently sleying the reed, tying on at lightning speed.  You throw the [...]
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1056 threads, but who's counting?

By Tien Chiu | Published: May 25, 2009
Me!  I am exactly 1056 threads into the threading for the dress fabric, with 11″ threaded and 13″ more to go.  AND I am caught up on Weavolution – which shocks and astonishes me, since I have been running like the proverbial hamster for the last week, trying to keep up. All in all, a good [...]
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