{"id":3407,"date":"2012-02-04T08:58:09","date_gmt":"2012-02-04T13:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/?p=3407"},"modified":"2016-02-19T14:48:38","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T19:48:38","slug":"loom-issues-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/2012\/02\/loom-issues-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Loom Issues #2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/naked-mac1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/naked-mac1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"naked macomber loom\" title=\"naked-macomber-loom\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3409\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/naked-mac1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/naked-mac1-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/naked-mac1-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/naked-mac1.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>I&#8217;m sorry to say that the state of my Macomber on <a href=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/2012\/01\/a-day-in-the-life-of-looms\/\">January 1 <\/a>is its  most frequent state &#8211; naked.  This is in contrast to my counterbalance loom, which rarely spends more than a few days without a warp on it.  Even my rigid heddle gets more use than the Mac.<\/p>\n<p>Why?<\/p>\n<p>I never developed a love for the Mac.  I know all about its reputation for quality.  I can tell you all about its best features.  Yet it still hasn&#8217;t entered my heart.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the reason is because I so love my little counterbalance loom.  What an incredibly lucky purchase that was &#8212; I knew next to nothing about looms and just happened on it.<\/p>\n<p>But that Mac has issues.  Maybe because it spent years in pieces in someone&#8217;s barn, maybe it simply needs more regular maintenance, or regular weaving, than the counterbalance.  Maybe because it didn&#8217;t come with a lovely poem taped to it.<\/p>\n<p>I noted in <a href=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/2012\/01\/quite-the-wait\/\">a recent post<\/a> that I wouldn&#8217;t weave cashmere silk on the Mac anymore.  I said I tend to make the tension too tight, causing problems.<\/p>\n<p>Well, when I was weaving those <a href=\"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/2012\/01\/weaving-towels\/\">towels<\/a>, I sure wasn&#8217;t using a yarn as fine as the cashmere silk!  I was using an unmercerized cotton, yarn that could take all the tension I wanted.  And I had to use every bit of it that the loom would provide.  If I didn&#8217;t have that tension as tight as possible, I ended up with at least an inch of threads at each selvedge that simply would not behave.  They&#8217;d sink into the shed and cause problems with every change of harness.  I should have taken a picture of it, but didn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>I would think that was my problem, that I hadn&#8217;t done a good job of tying on to the front apron, but I never have this problem on my counterbalance, even when I&#8217;m working at its full 22&#8243; weaving width.  So I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s me, I think it&#8217;s the Mac.  And I sure don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s inherent in Macs, I think it&#8217;s something specific to <em>my<\/em> Mac.<\/p>\n<p>I started by buying Tom Knisely&#8217;s new DVD, the Loom Owner&#8217;s Companion.  It was touted as providing problem-solving tips.  I suppose it does, but not of the type I was seeking.  This DVD was more basic &#038; general than I&#8217;d hoped for.  I&#8217;m donating it to my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Southern-Tier-Fiberarts-Guild\/140396199337501\" target=\"_blank\">Fiber Arts Guild<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>My next step is to go back to every screw &#038; bolt on the loom &#038; tighten it.  Since it hadn&#8217;t been assembled in so long, maybe everything has loosened up.  I&#8217;m hoping that will help, because I have an order for a baby blanket that I need to do on it.<\/p>\n<p>If that doesn&#8217;t solve the problem, I&#8217;m going to get the loom whisperer in.  I don&#8217;t know his name, and I&#8217;ve given him that title myself, but he helped out a friend of mine with her loom, and I&#8217;m hoping he can do the same for me.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, I&#8217;m really hoping the tightening solves the problem.  When I think back to the first few pieces I wove on the loom, I don&#8217;t think it had this problem of loose edges.  I&#8217;ll keep you posted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your turn: any ideas what I should try to improve the Mac&#8217;s functioning, and hopefully open room in my heart for it?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m sorry to say that the state of my Macomber on January 1 is its most frequent state &#8211; naked. This is in contrast to my counterbalance loom, which rarely spends more than a few days without a warp on it. Even my rigid heddle gets more use than the Mac.<\/p>\n<p>Why?<\/p>\n<p>I never developed [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[253],"class_list":["post-3407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weaving","tag-macomber","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3407"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3494,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407\/revisions\/3494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondwindjewelry.com\/jewelry-weaving-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}