[Tweaver.]

Hi, I am not a smallholder, accidental or otherwise, although I can still dream.
I am looking for advice, particularly from the mad goat woman, about weaving fleece rugs.
I have made a couple using a pegloom. I am about to get my first big floor loom. From reading posts it seems she may have woven rugs on a loom like this. I would like to know, what warp works best, most sensible epi  and whether just pulling bits off of the fleece or carding and using roving gave the best results.  Probably going to be using up the some Jacobs for the first one. Tia

[arobwk]

Welcome to the forum @Tweaver - why not send a personal message to all mad goat folk to discuss your interests ?  Plus you might post also in Crafts to catch folk who are only 'watching' threads related to weaving.

[Rosemary]

Hello and welcome to TAS 

[Fleecewife]

I shall be watching your reply from  [member=23109]Mad Goatwoman of Madeley[/member] ,@Tweaver because I STILL haven't made my first rug on my big floor-standing loom.  I've had it for years, taking up space in a shed, I have loads of fleeces to use, but not being a weaver yet, I just haven't got going.

[Lesley Silvester]

Hello and welcome from  Shropshire. I have replied to your message and envy anyone with a floor loom. FW you need to give it a go. I'll help if I can/

[Fleecewife]

Hello and welcome from  Shropshire. I have replied to your message and envy anyone with a floor loom. FW you need to give it a go. I'll help if I can/

I know I just need to dive in and get going.  Trouble is the loom has been sitting around in my wool shed for yonks, probably getting a bit rusty and dusty, and I have no idea how to warp the thing  It terrifies me.  I have a couple of batches of Heb fleece I had spun up thick with rugs in mind, but I expect I need some kind of string thread for warp material to be strong enough. I envisage making a rug to go in front of the fire for the dog to lie on as my first project.  I'm up to the eyeballs in projects now, including urgently needing to put in a new bathroom as we currently have to step over a hole in the floor where we dug up the drains    Thank goodness we didn't lamb this year    If I ever do get round to giving it a go you'll be the first to know Lesley 

[SallyintNorth]

Warping a rigid heddle is easy peasy.  Check out the Ashford video on You Tube.  It's easier with an assistant but you can manage solo - that's a harder thing to crack on a multishaft.

You might need to think about how much thickness you can hold on your front beam : it can get quite thick and take up all available space very quickly even when using thickish (sock or DK) yarn, never mind string and fleece!  I would suggest a short warp and make a tuffet or at most two for your first attempt, so you can calibrate what you can wind onto on your front beam. 

A multishaft loom would need heddles and a reed with space for your chosen warp thread.  The standard heddles (eg Texsolv) would not take anything much thicker than DK, if that.  Rigid heddles tend to come with bigger holes to start with, but you may still need to get one for a lower dent (or a varident if it's an Ashford) to accommodate your chosen warp.

[arobwk]

[  "Scotty, tell me, do you understand any of this ?" ... "I'm sorry Captain, but it's beyond my ken" ... "OK, beam me up Scotty before I am dented and prepare for getting out of here at warp factor 4 before the Enterprise is caught in a rigid heddle." ]

[Fleecewife]

You think that's bad arobwk - you should see the reality 




But Sally, I don't want a tuffet  .  I went on a weaving course to learn all I needed, although the instructor warped my 4 shaft jack loom for me (I think she thought I would spend the whole week doing just that).  The weaving was simple, just mathsy technique which I loved, so now I'm left wanting to get on with the floor loom, but with a big mental block about warping.  So I bought a little Harp rigid heddle loom to practice small things on, then life got complicated and I haven't even made anything on that.  The big (to me) floor loom is a Dryad from the 70s, the kind every hippy and every school had back then. It's old, we've been working on some repairs and I need to do some more work on it before I set to. For example, the previous owner had tied up the pedals with thick orange polyprop rope (yes it has two pedals).
The thing is that the warping is easy for someone who knows how to do it, but as I have never warped the thing I don't have a clue so it's not going to be easy.  I think there are youtube clips out there for the Dryad so when I'm ready I'll take a look at them, get Mr F into a warp mood and give it a go. Meantime can anyone give me advice about the best warp material to use with Heb fleece for a sturdy floor rug which will go into the washing machine please?  The Dryad is much bigger and chunkier all round than most Ashfords Sally, as they are made for floor rugs, but I get your point about checking the thickness to roll onto the front beam.  I'll try and get a pic tomorrow so you'll see it's a project, not something I can just start weaving on.


Updated:  I just found this old thread https://www.weavolution.com/group/dryad-upright-rug-loom-19195 which shows just how different this loom is.  Reading through other peoples queries, I see that my loom might not be complete, and could be quite difficult to use, especially now my joints have got creaky. It seems everyone's Dryad is a bit different from the next persons    I'm suddenly feeling despondent.
One good hint is that someone recommends the back to front warping technique, because the whole thing stands upright, so you can work with gravity

[SallyintNorth]

I usually warp back to front on my table looms. It makes more sense to me, and you don't have to wind the whole warp through the reed and heddles before you start weaving.

I wish I still lived up north, I would gladly come up and help you, Fleecewife!  I love warping! 

If no answer about the best warp for your project is forthcoming here, I will ask on another weaving group for you. 

[Womble]

[member=152775]arobwk[/member] - help! What language are they talking now? 

[Fleecewife]

[member=152775]arobwk[/member] - help! What language are they talking now? 

There there boys, don't you worry your little fluffy heads about it 

[Fleecewife]

I usually warp back to front on my table looms. It makes more sense to me, and you don't have to wind the whole warp through the reed and heddles before you start weaving.

I wish I still lived up north, I would gladly come up and help you, Fleecewife!  I love warping! 

If no answer about the best warp for your project is forthcoming here, I will ask on another weaving group for you.

Why did you move so far away Sally?  Wouldn't you like to come back for a week's holiday?  It would be very kind if you could ask any rug weavers you know what warp they use.  I had also been wondering if you can buy black, but in fact it would go black after the first wash, so white would help with the weaving.  I know I can suss the whole thing out if I have time to concentrate on it, it's just logic after all, but so far it's been put off so many times it's LOOMing out of all proportion 

[SallyintNorth]

Oooh, I would love a holiday visiting all my Friends in the North.  Have been plotting to come up with my teeny tiny caravan and do exactly that, but life keeps intervening.  Maybe next year... (as I have said every year for the last 4...   )

Meanwhile, a weaving pal on the Discord has suggested looking at the following as possible carpet warps for your project :

https://www.handweavers.co.uk/coloured-cotton-warp-126-equivalent.ir 
https://www.handweavers.co.uk/cabled-cotton-warp-235g.ir
https://myfineweavingyarn.co.uk/cotton/cabled-cotton-warp/cotton-warp-yarn-20-5-ne-x-3.html
https://myfineweavingyarn.co.uk/cotton/cabled-cotton-warp/cotton-warp-yarn-12-6.html
https://www.georgeweil.com/crafts/weaving/warp-yarns-2/

She and I had both assumed you would be making it weft-faced, so that the warp threads would only be visible at the ends of the rug, where you bind off or fringe or however you plan on finishing.  But as you are thinking about colour, perhaps you were planning that the warp would show in the body of the rug?  Either is nice! 

[Fleecewife]

What kind is your teenytiny caravan, Sally?  Plenty of places to park it here, or stay in the flat (which is also used as a stash store).


Please thank your friend for the trouble she, and you, have gone to for me. That gives me plenty of choice.  The reason I asked about the colour of the warp is that the first Heb rug I ever saw, presented with great fanfare, did show the white through.  It was quite shaggy so I've no idea whether or not it was meant to be warp faced or not, but I would expect mine to be.  At least the first one.


We've been playing around with the Dryad just now - I was worried the springs would be too heavy for my shoulders, but they are totally fine.  The person who complained perhaps didn't know the basics of physics; all she had to do was move the attachment points for the springs to lighten them.


The heddles look like Texsolv, they're thread anyway.  They could do with a wash - can they be taken off and washed easily? Or would it be better to replace them?  I didn't get a pic as I forgot the camera.  Will try again tomorrow so you can see what I'm talking about.


ps have you checked your pms?