one more photo

Cally asked if my apron rod would pass through after the latest changes. The answer is no. I need to use a narrower rod as there is only about 60cm in between. The ondulé reed itself is 60cm wide.
So, here another photo to show this:

The green arrow shows what the maximum width is in between. I did not take a photo of the narrower apron rod itself. It's now wound onto the beam with the woven cloth.

Adjustments to loom

Here are a few photos to show what the adjustments look like now.

A more detailed photo from the front:

The green arrow points to the wood that is fixed to the Louet beater. The red arrows point to the original Louet parts. The blue arrows point to where the adjustments are made to move the reed up and down.
The back part looks like this:

The coloured arrows point to the same parts as the front photo. The yellow arrow points to another part fixed to the extra wood parts to stabilize it all. If this was not there it would wobble to much.

The original Louet beater stand was used and extra upper and lower reed holder were bought and cut. (By buying this extra, I'll be able to use the beater for normal reeds too with the original upper and lower reed holder). By cutting to size, it was possible to fix the extra wood parts (where the adjusting system is fixed on to) on the inside of the beater stand. A ruler was fixed to both sides so that it's easy to see how much to move up or down. I've been moving 0,5cm every time I move. With this warp I've moved between 8,5cm. This way I just stayed away from the top and bottom of the reed. By doing this, I have not had any more broken warp threads. I'm hoping that with stronger threads I'll be able to weave higher and lower as the total hight of the reed is 11cm.
I'll now post some photo's to Louet as I promised I would show them what my friend Toon has made.

I've almost woven this warp. It's easy to get into a rhythm, moving after every so many throws. My first sample I moved after every 4th throw up or down and for the rest of the warp I've been playing with doing this after every 6th and 8th throw. Woven plain weave but the last part I'm weaving twill just to see how that comes out. Once cut, I'll be able to show more samples.

Other activity

I've had my frontdoor changed. This has taken me several months. First choosing one, next ordering it and this week I had it fitted. It was a big job, the carpenter has been busy for nearly 2 days. The only thing doing now is painting the door.

But all of the woodwork outside needs painting. Next job is choosing colours and getting the paint.
I'm hoping for lots of dry days this next month :-)

On the weaving front, my first ondulé warp is almost woven.

weaving the next sample

Last night I wove quite a bit on my 2nd sample. Changing the hight of the reed after every 6 throws (every 0,75cm), so getting a longer curve. The 1st sample I changed after every 4th throw (every 05,cm). You can see them here together.

I also want to make them even longer, say weave 1cm before changing, just to see how it will come out. By not weaving right up to the edge's, has made a difference to the yarn. So far no broken warp threads. It's fun weaving with this reed. Not as slow as I would have thought.

Back visiting museum

Today I went back to the Groninger Museum to have another look at Painting Canada that I went to see last month. The colours are so beautiful. This exhibition is on for another month, so I might even go back for a 3rd time to see them. They are so different and I've always wanted to visit Canada, that might have something to do with it. It's making me even more determend to go on a visit.
Last time I only saw the Canadian paintings but there was far more to see and that was another reason to go back to the museum. I was pleasantly surprised to see this. I did not think I would like it but I did. Reading about her work was very interesting. One work that was one of my favourites was this one. I like it that she uses a lot of textile in her work.
The third exhibition to see was work of a designer. Again interesting to read up on her thoughts behind her work. I'm glad I've seen it all.
I took along a friend, she had not been to Groningen before and it was only my 2nd visit. Last time I spent most time in the museum but now we walked about. As everything was closed it was nice to walk the streets without shoppers. We had an enjoyable lunch in a lovely place, it was almost empty when we came in but by the time we left it was buzzing with people.

Washed sample

I've washed my first sample and I love the result!

The bamboo is a lovely yarn and after washing it feels nice and soft. It has shrunk about 10% in width and length.
I've now rethreading the reed and looking forward to weaving more. Still the bamboo yarn so will probably have more warp breakages. I will go not so far up and down this time and stay away from the finest part of the reed. Next warp for this reed will be a stronger yarn though, so that I will be able to weave right to the finest part of the reed.
Might also try weaving longer in each position (this sample I moved up/down every 0,5cm), getting longer curves and see how that looks.

Parcel from Canada

Today I received a parcel from Laura Fry in Canada. Just loved all the stamps on the parcel :-)
It's her latest publication A Good Yarn: Cotton.
There are 10 projects with 20 samples (before and after wet finishing) + yarn samples, it will be good to read all about the cotton and feel the samples!

How wonderful that Laura is taking on these huge projects. It makes such a difference to have the actual samples! The first one was of course Magic in the Water. She has now started her next yarn project with Rayon.

Unexpected museum visit

Today I happened to be near this museum with a friend and we decided on the spot to go and visit. It's located in a National Park so you have to pay to get into the park but it was well worth it. It's still lovely summer weather so lovely to drive through the park and on to visit the museum that houses a big collection of Van Gogh but also impressionists and more other styles too. The collection was started in 1908 and is still added to. There are also many sculptures inside and out in the garden too.
What was magic to see was these paintings. They are very big paintings and looked great here together. A special exhibition was this, a new to me artist but I'm glad I've seen the paintings. Only just over a week left to see, so very lucky to have decided to take this detour to the museum.

more updating

The first sample has been cut.

I wove as much as I could but came upon a problem I should have thought about when attaching the warp to the apron rod. My loom is 70cm wide but the ondulé reed is 60cm wide. And the adaptation to the beater makes it not wider than the 60cm. So, using my usual rod of 70cm I had a problem once I reached the point that the 70cm would not pass the 60cm gap :-(

The changes made solving the problem I had going higher were done like this:

The green arrow shows where the copper part was changed for a small nut, giving me just enough space to move the extra hight.
Here the sample after cutting, it's about 38cm long:

The new to me yarn, the bamboo is nice to weave with but may be next time I should choose a stronger yarn to avoid braking any warp threads when weaving at the top or bottom of the reed.
The bamboo looks a bit like linen but than they are both plants so not so silly to see the similarity here.

A short break from weaving this warp now as I'm taking the beater and reed to my friend Toon. He is going to do a final adaptation, so that I'll be able to use my usual 70cm reeds in this beater too. At the moment that is not possible due to the way it is all fixed to the beater.
Up until now I only had the hanging beater that comes with the loom and really had to get used to that in the beginning. I had read that Louet did a standing beater but never thought about what difference that would make to the weaving. Now that I have ordered it for this ondulé reed I really prefer this beater to the hanging version. This standing beater is fixed to the stand with a small block of wood.

We found it was just to high so my friend sliced a bit of this block and it is perfect now.The green arrow shows where the beater is fixed into the block, that point was to high. The blue arrow is the amount that was sliced of giving a perfect hight.

update on weaving

I've woven a bit more but have come up against a problem that needs attending. The whole made frame where the reed is fitted into needs to be lifted slightly so that I can weave just a bit more "down the reed"

The yellow arrow is where I cannot go any higher. When the whole frame is lifted slightly (red arrows show where it's attached to the beater) than I'll be able to weave a bit more.

But this is what the weaving looks like up to now

In the first narrow bit, I think I went just to far, there was a lot of tension on the warp and I had a broken warp thread and I also found that the warp threads were sticking into the reed. Once I found this out I was able to correct it every time this happened.
This is the point of this warp. Finding out how to weave with this reed and what problems you come up against.
Tomorrow is another day :-) Enough for today.

New to me weaving

I've started weaving with the ondulé reed. Very new to me. Also the yarn is new to me, bamboo. I've only just started but it all seems to go well.
This is how the loom looks at the moment

And a close up of the sides of this setup

The reed can move up and down by turning the copper rings (see green arrows) at top and bottom and the ruler helps to keep track where I am and how much to move.
I'm moving up/down 0,5cm at a time. This is a trial warp to see if this setup will work.
Toon, my friend who made this for me, will make some adjustments after this warp to perfect it even more.

This is what the weaving looks like

Not very far yet, only just began, but wanted to share. You can see a slight beginning of the fan weave.

No more guests

My granddaughter has been and gone. We had 4 nice days together.

This was last Sunday when we could have our breakfast outside. Today has been mostly rain.
The house seems quite after their visits.
Time to get back into weaving.
Finished Me Before You in 2 days, great read as I could not put it down.