Choosing Heddles and Threading the Loom

My loom is up and running beautifully! Once the warp is beamed sectionally, I place the threads in a raddle and then hang lease sticks at the back of the heddles. Beacuse the AVL tension box creates a cross it ensures all my ends are in the correct position. Prior to using this tension box, I simply hung the various sections over one lease stick and selected the various ends from each section. The reason that I hang my lease sticks is so that the ends are at the correct height for me to thread the heddles. My looms have a variety of heddles and each has their advantages and disadvantages.

My old Clement loom is a work horse loom and has flat steel heddles. These heddles are the heaviest of all the heddles and do not bend easily. Since the eyes are fairly large and flat, they are easy to thread. This makes it great for heavier weight cotton warps.

My Colonial has wire heddles. These are slightly lighter that the flat steel heddles and still easy to thread. It takes a fair deal of bending to break these but I have seen it done - especially on looms that fold and that are being moved around alot - the heddles can get caught and bent or broken.

When it came to the AVL looms, I decided to go for Texsolv heddles. These heddles are the lightest and this was an important consideration for me as moved to looms with more shafts. At first I found them a bit ackward to work with, as the heddles are flexible and you need to hold the heddle eye to draw the thread through. But like anything else, with a little practice, you adjust to the new process.

I thread my heddles using Allan Fannin's method of placing one warp end inbetween your fingers and then drawing them through one by one according to your pattern. Usually I move the heddles to the right along the shaft and organize the pattern, then place my left hand with the threads placed in my fingers to the left of the arranged heddles and draw them through. I have found this method to be really quick. With the Texsolv heddles, I tilt my left hand so that I have my palm up, making it easier to grab the threads in order and hold the heddle firm.

Once the heddles are threaded, I use the same method of holding the threads in my left hand between my fingers and draw the threads through the reed. A few years ago, I invested in an Auto Reed Hook, and again once you get the technique it really works well. The main concept is it to make sure you push the hook in and out of the dents properly. After awhile, you get used to listening for the click. My first post has a video of the auto reed hook in action - the video was taken away from the loom on a desk and so I could not move my hand into the correct position of palms up but you can get the idea.

Now back to the loom and my next blog entry will discuss overslung and underslung beaters.