i'm just starting to use 2 heddles on my kromski harp.  i have 2 10 dent heddles, using a leftover sock yarn sett at 20epi.  i'm sampling right now, as this is my first project with both heddles.  my trouble is that my weft is frowning.  it keeps curving downward, away from the fell line.  i've tried using the sock yarn, 8/2 tencel, and a sport weight cotton as weft.  the cotton did work the best, though still had a slight curve.  am i using a wrong sett?  tension problems?  i'd really like to use the double heddle method to increase my sett, to do some more work with finer yarns.  any help is greatly appreciated!

Comments

Thu, 06/20/2013 - 13:51

sarahnopp (not verified)

Did you check to make sure your tie on bar isn't curving? I have had issues where the tension on the bar causes it to flex until is starts rolling around the cloth beam. One of my solutions was to tie on to a different dowel and lash that to the tie-on bar. Another was to simply advance the warp to the cloth beam and get that second tension on it, which used more yarn, but gave me more fringe to play with.

Thu, 06/20/2013 - 13:57

sally orgren

Sorry to hear this. Yes, it IS sad when the weft is frowning.

Sounds like the tension in the center is tighter than at the edges. On the back of the loom, your warp should be a consistent "cylinder" (warp depth) all the way across. It should not be humped higher in the center than at the edges on the back beam. If this is the case, I would rebeam to make it even all the way across, and use some kind of packing between the warp layers to maintain the edges/selvedges.

Or, maybe you are not beating consistently across the warp. Are you using two hands to pull the RH down to place the weft? (Or grabbing it from the side only?) 

You mention using "leftover" sock yarn. If the leftovers are all from the same skein, then ignore this comment. But if you mixed different leftover sock yarns throughout the warp, some could have more stretch or different properities than others.

Hope that helps troubleshoot a bit!

Thu, 06/20/2013 - 23:49

pnkfzzyslpprs

the tie on bar seems to be straight, i even had my hubby come examine it for me, lol.  as far as the yarn being leftovers, it is from 2 different skeins.  i have the loom warped about 3" wide, just to be able to play a little bit.  it is 1"of grey, 1" pink, 1"grey again.  so the different yarn is in the middle.  i was planning a project with 10/2 perle cotton warp, and 8/2 tencel weft.  if i can't figure it out with these yarns, maybe i'll have to try a little of those to see if it's the yarn, or the user.  i was really paying close attention to my beat, because i have trouble keeping it even.  but i think on such a small width, it is probably exaggerated?  perhaps it IS the user after all.