Thoughts on 2.5 – Dressing Your Loom Back to Front – Sleying the Reed

[Ginette]

Let us know your thoughts on 2.5 – Dressing Your Loom Back to Front – Sleying the Reed.

[ruthoem]

I have been weaving for over 20 years, and have studied with several excellent teachers. I’m just auditing this section, just in case, and it is well worth it.
You chat away, pointing out your method of warping. I agree with everything you say, until once in a while “Oh! Jane’s way seems better than the way I do it now!!”
Thank you for doing all this. Your mahvellous!

[ev.rush]

Where would you tie the swine thread for the lead sticks on an Octado. One side of the castle sticks out more to accommodate the mechanical dobby box or computer dobby.

[Jane]

I just tie them up the way I demonstrate on all the video…It is just a little funny looking.

[lesliemartens2]

So this just happened. I finished sleying only to discover that somehow (???) I left a bout unsleyed, about 16” from one side. How important is it to have the threads centred in the reed? If I fix it on the shorter side then it will be less work. If I fix it on the longer side, it will be more work but it will be exactly centred in the reed. PS I have a Leclerc Nilus and can slide the reed around to ensure that the threads themselves are centred to the loom!

[Jane]

Oh, fix it on the easy side. Then move your reed in the beater to centre the warp. Easy Peasy.

[lesliemartens2]

Thanks, Jane…now it’s all sleyed, properly centred and then just now I disovered (BIG SIGH) there is about 3” of warp on one outside edge (near the crank) that is soggy, visibly looser compared to the rest of it. Does this mean undoing my sleying and threading and rewinding the warp or is there some other way to fix it? (Please let there be some other way to fix it…)

[Jane]

Hi Leslie,
Re-beaming is very easy. You just untie from the front apron and pull everything forward through the heddles and reed until it looks good, hopefully you won’t have to pull the whole thing off….then you wind it back on making sure your paper or sticks are in well and retie. We have all had to do that at least once :)!

[lesliemartens2]

Thanks much, this is the widest warp I have ever worked with (41”) and had never noticed from the narrow warps how uneven everything looks until you tie on. I am so worried about mistakes that I am seeing them where they aren’t. Thank you for the speedy reply, all is well!

[suzyviajera]

I’ve goofed something up and need HELP. I sleyed my 10 dent reed (2-2-2-3) for the Sample #7-Primaries & Secondaries Gamp and it’s no where near the 17.75″ width in reed.
I have a Louet David, 90 cm loom. This is my first multi-harness floor loom project. Rigid Heddle prior experience.
Using 8/2 cotton, 320 ends, raddle width was 22″ (skipped one section in raddle every 4″), going for an EPI 18 (per instructions). At this point, width in reed is ~14″. Can someone help me determine where I made my mistake(s)?
suzyviajera@gmail.com
Thanks so much.

[Ginette]

Hi Suzy,
You can resley the reed 1-2-2-2 for an EPI of 17.5 and that will give you a width in the reed of 18.28″ wide. The sett of 17.5 EPI which is close enough to 18 EPI so go for that. It’s just a tad more open.

If you look at the Reed Substitution Chart for the 10 dent reed column for the ‘sley in the reed’ of 2-2-2-3 that you did, that gave you 22.5 EPI which made your width in the reed at 14.54″ wide (320/22.5=14.54).

Hope this makes sense!

[suzyviajera]

Ginette,
Thank you so much. I used another source for the 2-2-2-3 sley pattern. I’ll stick to Jane’s material from now on. It’s always so good.

Thank you. Sleying will begin this afternoon.

[Bettie Shea]

Jane!

Thank you. I was sleying my reed this afternoon on my little Dorothy. I have never done this before, having never woven on the Dorothy,  and had watched this episode a couple of times. I realized I was using your technique without even planning to! It just happened, and was so natural and easy.  You are a treasure.

[linda pelech]

Hi, I have bought the kit, Janes favorite towels, I am sleying the reed from front to back and I have had to do it 3 times now because the warp is not in the center.  I am following her reed chart because I don’t have the 10 dent reed required. I am using a 8 dent reed. so as I follow the chart it says 3,3,3, in each dent. well my warp is way off , it is almost done and I am not even close to the center. how do I figure out how to center this warp? The second time I sleyed it , I was looking at the chart wrong, I did 2,2,2  and it was out 1.5 inches on each side. should I go back to the 2,2,2 and just move it the 1.5 inches over.

 

getting ready to give up 🙁

[Sandra]

I’m a bit confused because I don’t have a copy of the pattern you are working on in front of me.  However, do you have a mark in your reed that shows you the middle point in it?  I put a little bit of yarn and tie it on to the middle dent in all my reeds to help me find the middle right away.  Then knowing what the width in reed my project is going to be – I divide that in half and start denting my reed so it will be divided both ways evenly from the centre point.

From the description on the website, the pattern calls for a 12 dent reed.  Do you have one?  If you do, the epi in the pattern is 18 (for instance) – then you scroll down in the Reed Substitution Chart in the column under the 12 until you find 18 – which tells you that you sley that reed 1-2.  If you plan to use your 8 dent reed – then you sley your reed 2-2-2-3.

Let us know if you still have problems.

[Trish]

I always tied the beater )as instructed) and always thought it was hard on my body…looking forward to trying with a moving beater…I’ve had tunnel vision and never thought that was an option (tried other way such as resting reed on stocks, etc etc)

[Trish]

As I started to sley with a moving beater I was thrown back in time to be first years of weaving.  Basically I had a couple of very short weaving lessons, bought my loom, and wove on my own making every mistake I could over the years  (learning on my own), and following my intuition…what felt good.  As Jane tells us, do what feels right for YOU.  As I started sleying with the moving beater today, I was reminded that I used to do that before anyone told me not to! Then over the years, I started listening to everyone that had an opinion – and years of experience- and doubted myself in many things.  Thanks so much for all of these videos – they’ve been a reminder to do what works for ME.  With all my limitations, just do what works for me…thank you Jane for repeatedly reminding us.  The techniques you share with us – and the wisdom – are priceless 🙂

[Paul Razzell]

HELP!

I’ve run into two warping issues: (1) Due to lack of planning on my part, my reed won’t accommodate the final end of my warp. What should I do with this last end? Take it off my loom? Or thread it through the last hole of the reed, which will mean that that hole will have two ends running through it? or use it as a floating selvedge thingy?

Problem (2): the width of my warp at the back of the loom is 19″ while at the front it is 32″. This means my warp is “fanning out” (widening) from back to front. Will this cause problems when I weave? if so, how can I fix this problem?

[Sandra]

Your tension might be a problem as the outsides will tend to get tighter than the centre.  If you are making towels, or something relatively short, you may have to cut each on off if the tension gets too much on the outside. Did you spread your warp out in your raddle according to your epi?

In the meantime, I’d treat the orphan warp as a floating selvedge, it will give you practice weaving with them.  Keep an eye on it to make sure it’s kept under control.

[Danielle Perreault]

Thank you very much, I learn many things with you.

[Jan]

These videos are amazing. Because I have not done any weaving in many years, I am reviewing, and find more useful details each time.  Whatever I learned long ago (college art teacher education class) was not nearly as much fun as watching Jane’s videos – which are like my “happy pills” each day with my cup of tea.  My husband made a rattle for me and without question said I needed the Irwin Quick Grips.  Now, if I can just keep them in the house 🙂

Question:

My 30-year-old mighty wolf came with only a 12 dent reed.  Going forward, since these are not cheap, which reed(s) do you suggest I purchase next?  Looking forward to making this journey of color and joy.

[Regina Komo]

Hi Jane. Why don’t you just take the wooden bar above the reed off when sleying? (It looks like it comes off.) I have an Ashford Jack and I take it off. It Just sits in the bottom rung and can tilt forward or back. Makes it so easy.

[Sharon Fischer]

Hi Jane and Crew,

I poured over the first two seasons (repeatedly) while I waited for my Louet David loom to arrive. Now, four months later, I have sleyed the reed for project #1. Because it is an 18 EPI warp in a 10 dent reed, I sleyed it 2222122221 (or 1222212222 going from right to left). As I am weaving there is slight gap where only 1 thread came through the reed. What did I do wrong?

Thank you,

Sharon

[Sandra]

Sharon – it will all come together when you wash it.  Jane always quotes Laura Fry by saying “the magic is in the water!”

[Leslie Soopalu]

Plaid sample sleying the reed question.

I’m using 12 dent reed and it is threaded 1-2. The sleying pattern of 1-2 does not continue right to the end just based on the number of threads in the project so I end up with 2-1-1 for my very last 3 slots in the reed.

Will it be noticeable that one selvedge is not sleyed the same as the other? Do you recommend just leaving it and carrying on or doing something different with the threading?

thanks! Leslie

[Sandra]

Good morning Leslie, you are fine!  The number of ends in a project doesn’t always add up when you are denting your reed.  It will change depending on the size of reed you are using and you won’t even notice it.  Have fun weaving.

[Author]

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