The Kessenich Floor Loom is here!

 

It's here!  The Kessenich Floor Loom is here!  Sitting pretty in our guest room ...  Even unrolled the nice woven rugs for its feet. 

I have a mind to clear out everything else possible as THIS BEAUTY is the guest of honor.  That might mean getting a smaller bed for the space, and using this room less for storage.

  

Last weekend, Lynda and I finished warping the loom.   Here the warp strings are running through the heddles of 4 shafts in a very standard set-up.  A set of 4 strings, running through the first set of heddles in all 4 shafts.  We did that all the way across the loom ...   We warped from front to back, as this is what Lynda knows and seems to work well on this particular loom.



Warp tied on in bundles all across the warp beam apron at the back of the loom.

 Warp is secured to the breast beam (bottom of pic) so we don't pull it through while we're winding the warp, and loose all our good work.  The reed makes such lovely order of what looked like a tangled mess while where were working through the process.  Amazingly, all those tangles fell right out as we worked.  

 

Ta-dah!  All warped.  

We wound on about 8 yards.  Since I need the practice, I didn't want to put on too much.  This is set up for weaving rugs with a "looser" reed.  Since the supposed rags will be course, I didn't need such a fine reed as you'd need for weaving lace or towels.   

We tried a few "test" runs, and it works beautifully -- as Lynda said it would.  Only 2 threading errors, and they were pretty easy to fix.  
From the bottom :
Set 1) The initial runs just to space the strings out evenly for weaving.
Set 2) Common weave
Set 3) 1-3 Twill
Set 4) Common Weave
Set 5) 2-2 Twill

The common weave and the 2-2 Twill will be good for making rugs.

We changed the tie-ups for the treadles so they would make more sense for me, then she showed me 2 versions of Twill that I should be able to weave, along with a simple common weave (which I'm used to on my little loom).    Who-hooh!   

 

Folded and ready for transport, even with the warp intact.   Secured with a few bungees.

After we folded it up, it JUST FIT in CL's car (for future reference : 43 inches wide x 52 inches tall x 17 deep, folded)  Whew!   There was even room on top for the warping board.

It spent the night in CL's car.  We got back after dark, and didn't want to try and move it without good light.  Too many moving parts. And heavy.

I'm so excited! Now -- what to make first?