So I had to try it...

So far, about 600+ threads seems to make something a little over a foot wide. I need to adjust the tension a little and that may help with the width, but I was guessing it was going to be this way. The threads are pretty light weight. I also think I want to toy with adding a bit more weight. Lastly I need a step stool so that I can see better to mess with the threads at the top.
I will post pics soon...it isn't pretty, but it's weaving...

I'm going to be less vague about Heddle knitting :)

So...I decided that after reading my last post that I should explain how to knit a heddle. I think that chaining the warp is pretty easy to explain (just like crochet chaining - but pick up one of the warp threads inside each stitch), but knitting the heddles is a little more complicated....
Step one - Fill a small shuttle with thread that you want to use to make heddles. I used a contrasting thread to make it easier to see. Starting on the left side of the loom, tie the end to the heddle rod.
Step two - To make it easier, you or a helper should bring the back threads between the front threads so that they are easier to reach. We used a glave to hold them forward.
Step three - Pass the shuttle under the heddle rod, around the thread (left to right), over the top of the heddle rod.

At this point it gets a little more complicated.

Step four - While holding the shuttle in you right hand, grab the loop that has formed around the heddle rod with your left. Twist the loop towards you so that the loop is made into a figure eight shape. Then pass the shuttle through the part of the eight that is closest to you (again from left to right). This will tie a kind of slip knot.
Step five - Adjust the tension and the heddle (loop) size.

Congrats - you have knitted one heddle...

The hardest part is keeping all the heddles relatively the same size. I have a few ideas on how I will do this in the future...but I need to test them out.

The next time I have someone around that can take pictures of my hands I will take a picture of each step...

It is finished!

Today Greet came over again to help with getting all the heddles knitted so I can get down to some weaving. Greet brought her notebook (of doom...cause all notebooks that contain important info are notebooks of doom) with the notes from the wwweaving class that she took at Pennsic. We talked about how we would move the heddle thread through the threads and it was decided that a shuttle would work great (it did - I used a mini card weaving shuttle) We worked out how the heddles were knitted and started. It seemed a little different than what I had seen online (which isn't much - all the heddle knitting info everywhere is very vague...), but I figured there must be something that I didn't know since I have never actually seen a working wwloom in person - and then we finished. We were very excited. We moved the heddle rod and....nothing happened. We tried again. We walked around the loom and looked at it from many angles. We looked at the pictures in the book. We tried again. Nothing. We did it wrong. Greet had apparently been a few minutes late to class and had missed the writing down of the part about how the heddle loops around the thread. After discussing what we had done and discussing the vague pictures that I have seen online we deduced what had happened and figured out what needed to be done different. That was the good news....the bad being I had to knit all the heddles again - Well I did title this blog "My experiments..." :)

Greet needed to go to Ensemble practice so after she left I sat down and stared at it....and went and got a razor blade. We had discussed leaving what we had done in place - but it was just going to be confusing...and there is some kind of perverse satisfaction about cutting the threads and watching the heddles all fall to the floor. I then started to knit the heddles again. I was at least very competent at the knitting process since I had already done it once today. When I was finished. I crossed my fingers and moved the bar...success!!! Sort of...I had a few threads that had been twisted in the knitting process and I had to pull those out, straighten them, and using a yarn needle, put them back into the warp chain. I checked the sheds to make sure that all the threads were where the needed to be, added an extra weight to each side because it made it easier for the heddles to move freely, and re-spaced the top a little better (really understand why the card woven header is a good idea now). I also re-tied the warp chains to the uprights a little differently so that the sheds opened a little smoother.

Then I sat in a chair and admired the finished warp :)

See the glave in the picture...that was to hold the shed once it was separated - made it much easier to knit the heddles. Would have been even better had I had another piece of closet rod, but I didn't.

You can clearly see in this pic how the glave is working...

This is when the heddles were being knitted wrong...it's hard to see because of their color. This is also a pic of the little shuttle that I used.

This is a close up of the above shot...

Almost finished doing it...wrong :)

Up close of almost done...wrong...

Picture done the write way. Notice how you can see a lot more green and the threads are much further away from the heddle bar.

This is what the spacing and loom looks like when all the heddles are knit.

A closer look...

This is the natural shed that happens when the heddle bar in resting in the brackets. I'm holding it open with my sword beater, but you can see all the heddles and how they work.

This is the second shed that is formed when the heddle bar is moved back so that it rests against the uprights.

Now the loom is all set to do so simple tabby weave....we'll see how simple it really is :)

I've started on some mittens :)

In between working on my loom I have started a set of mittens...I have one almost completed and I'll post a pic of the pair when I'm done. I'm using the York stitch (Naalbinding)...in a pretty shade of purple merino wool...

My sword beater is finished!

Here is my finished sword beater. It is made of poplar and is 29inches from end to end and about 3inches wide at the widest part of the blade. I'm lucky that the maker decided to use a draw knife to make it and then scraped it instead of sanding using sandpaper - So I have a period sword beater! Yeah! The last step will be oiling the wood to seal it so that it's smooth and doesn't warp.

Here it is!

How it compares to my current warp.

Starting the process of knitting the heddles...getting closer to actual weaving!!

Well...that last step before weaving is knitting/chaining the heddles. This is the process that actually makes it so there are two sheds. I'm veru excited that I will be starting to weave fabric in the next week!

Chaining the warp!

Today a new friend - Greet, came over and helped me make more progress on the warping progress. I needed to chain both warps and add the weights to the front before I could chain the heddles. I had started to chain the back row last night and it was slow going, today with Greet's help things went much faster. Warping a warp weighted loom goes much faster and easier with two people :)

This picture is an up close of the chaining.

The chain is the same kind that you would use to start crocheting

with one thread inside each chain...

This is the back threads chained...

A view of all the back threads chained and the front threads with their weights...

A little bit closer view...

Greet between the front and back threads.
She is feeding the threads down to me so that I can then chain them.

This is one of the things that really helped make it go much faster!! :)

The front and the back threads are now all chained...

A side view...

Us laughing and joking now that we are done with this part...

The loom is now chained and weighted...

All that is left is to chain the heddles to the heddle rod and it will be ready to weave!