Adventures in Drawloom Weaving Vol. 1

Drawloom weaving is truly an adventure. Those considering drawloom weaving need to ask themselves this question, "Do I love threading heddles enough to do it twice?!" Yes that's right...twice.The process for setting up a drawloom are similar to those for setting up any loom. There are obvisouly a few extra steps. This blog entry is not meant to be a tutorial for setting up a drawloom, but I will write a future entry that will share the steps I reccently went through to troubleshoot some issues I had with my drawloom. If you are looking for a good tutorial on setting up a drawloom, Becky Asheden's video is the way to go.The steps for setting up the drawloom are listed below:

  1. WInd Warp
  2. Beam Warp
  3. Thread pattern heddles- you only use one pattern heddle per pattern block, which is generally 4-8 threads.
  4. Thread ground heddles
  5. Sleigh reed
  6. Tie on
  7. Distribute pattern heddles
  8. Tie Up Treadles
  9. Adjust Sheds
  10. Square pattern block
  11. Test Pattern
  12. Weave!

In my next blog entry, I will discuss my recent adventure in troubleshooting my drawloom shed (step 9 above). :)