Tien Chiu

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A narrow shave

The good news first: after almost six months of setback after setback, I finished threading my loom!!

a fully threaded TC-2 jacquard loom
a fully threaded TC-2 jacquard loom

I know it doesn’t look like much, but at a density of 120 ends per inch, that’s 1,760 threads – quite an effort!

Just as I was about to pop the cork on the champagne bottle, I noticed that I had run out of threads at the very end. There were four empty heddles. What could have caused four empty heddles?

…and then I realized that I had missed four heddles early on, and as a result, virtually all the threads were threaded in the wrong order. Normally you would thread all the heddles in position #1 on the front four modules in sequence front to back, then thread all the heddles in position #1 on the back four modules, again front to back. I had managed to shift the sequence, so instead of being threaded 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 front to back, they were threaded 5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4 front to back. This is the sort of mistake that leads to guzzling a fifth of whiskey and then passing out on the studio floor. And then giving up, pulling everything out, and starting six months’ work over again.

Fortunately, before I went out to get the aforementioned bottle of whiskey, I decided to email the Jacquard Study Group in hopes of finding a solution. I was quickly reassured that I could fix the problem in software, either by “casting out” heddles on the TC-2 or by changing the order of the heddles in the software. Hooray! Disaster (narrowly) averted. But it was a close shave.

Around the time I breathed my sigh of relief, the doorbell rang. It was the mailman, delivering the mail. There were two copies of Shuttle, Spindle, and Dyepot in the mail. Curious why I would be getting two copies, I paged through the magazine. And there was a wonderful review of my book Master Your Craft! 

review of Master Your Craft
review of Master Your Craft

So exciting.

I’m off in a few days to teach my “Power Up Your Process” workshop for the Eugene Weavers’ Guild. I’m also presenting my “Get Wild: Secrets of Brainstorming” program for them. I’m looking forward to meeting my students and teaching the class!

Comments

    • As a computer professional, I bet you suspected that you could “fix” your problem by changing the software!

      I don’t know anyone else with a modern Jacquard loom. They are absolutely fascinating to watch. Would you be so kind as to make a video of it when it is running and producing cloth?

      Here is a wonderful YouTube video of a 1930’s Jacquard loom in England.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Zzj9ZBYmQ

      Thanks!

  2. My heart sank when I arrived at the part where you said you missed threads and the beginning and what I imagined you might need to do…Glad for the computer collective that helps all of us avert total disaster! Looking forward to the next progress report.