Good afternoon everyone, I have a very solid Swedish 4 shaft counterbalanced loom and have been given 4 more shafts which are slightly wider than the existing ones. Do you think it possible to add these shaft in a drawloom arrangement to use as extra pattern shafts? There is room behind the centre upright at each side, a sort of 15" wide side doorway, where there is unobstructed access to the inside of the loom behind the existing shafts. I hope someone is able to help me as I'm very keen to use this extra capacity. With thanks and best wishes, Kath Worcestershire, England PS If anyone recognises this make of loom I would be pleased for any information. I know it was used at the WWII rehab centre for the British Army and Free French at Finedon Hall, Northamptonshire.

Comments

Sat, 05/11/2013 - 15:19

SallyE (not verified)

I actually ran across an article that explains how to do exactly what you want.   I'll need your email to do that.

 

 

Sat, 05/11/2013 - 16:34

Katy Carr

Thank you Sally, a very interesting article.  The new shafts have to be lifted manually and my gift shafts are 50" wide x 15" deep with metal heddles supported on metal rods.  I fear these would take some lifting and being a bit of a short-house I would have a job to reach them, I am hoping to manipulate them from my seated position by way of cords at the front.  This would still be heavy work of course, and perhaps some counter balanced mechanism can be worked out.  But a good place to start and a great help, thanks Sally.

Best wishes, Kath

Sat, 05/11/2013 - 16:49

SallyE (not verified)

Nothing stops you from adding chords to the pattern shafts, much like a "regular" draw loom!  Just get a picture of a draw loom and figure out how it's done, and do the same.

BTW,  Becky at Vavstuga here in the states has produced a great DVD about setting up a draw loom.   When I built mine, I found it invaluable.  You can order it from her here:

http://www.vavstuga.com/classes/desc-drawlooms.shtml

And don't forget to post picures of what you figured out!

 

Sun, 05/12/2013 - 07:07

kerstinfroberg

Katy, I don't think your loom is Swedish - I've never seen Swe looms with rollers. We use pulleys and horses instead.

There are ways to add shafts by using different pulleys - a "2-tier" pulley plus horses would be enough for 8 shafts. Another option is to use dräll pulleys, but that restricts the structures you can weave, as a dräll pulley requires a tie-up on opposites.

On my blog I have some drawings and musings about multi-shaft CB - here.

Sun, 05/12/2013 - 13:48

Katy Carr

Dear Sally and Kerstin,

Thank you very much both for your help.

Sally, the Vavstuga website is going to be a very helpful one, especially their useful little uTube snippets.  I shall look into buying the DVD.  I see they also have book reviews via uTube, flipping through the pages is a very good way of assessing whether a book is going to be of use.  I have been collecting old Swedish weaving books by weavers such as Malin Selander and Ulla Cyrus in anticipation of finishing my art degree and having time to get down to some serious weaving, hence my plan of adding these gift shafts to my loom in readiness.

But Kerstin, my loom may not be a Swedish loom after all?  Perhaps it is a Harris then, I have seen similar ones.  I thought they had maker's plaques on their looms, but this is a wartime loom, times were hard and resources in short supply.  Perhaps this one was not of their standard design and a special order adapted for limbless soldiers.  There is a metal loop on the bottom of the beater and a couple of little pulleys on the top of the uprights at the back of the loom.  They looked useful, so I re-attached them when I rebult the loom just in case I ever found out what they were for ...but what?  Another conundrum!

With thanks and best wishes, Kath