Saturday, May 31, 2008

Weaving Temples



Weaving Temples are used to decrease draw-in and to avoid broken selvedge threads. The ultimate goal is to obtain a woven fabric very close in width to the width set on the reed. There are commercially available ones made out of wood or metal. They come in different adjustable widths and can get pricy. I have a couple but of course not the exact size for my current project. As with many other things I use, this came from one of the weaving yahoo lists.
All you need is an alligator tarp clasp and a piece of cord to attach the clasp to the side of the loom. I use nylon cord. I advance the clasp as I advance the warp, every inch at the most.
This is an unexpensive tool that works wonders if you set the right width from the beginning. I do not undo the knots until I am done, just advance the clasp.
The result is even woven width with no broken selvedge threads. You could also screw an eye bolt to the side of the loom, I just don't like drilling holes in my tools so I go for the knot.
The clasps are available at the camping gear stores.

8 comments:

fleegle said...

Nice adaptation!

I can't think of anything else to say, having sold my looms years ago, so I will just say Helloooo (Big Smile to you too!)

Julie said...

Thanks for the great tip!!I'm a new weaver and I love all the tips I can get.

Leigh said...

Oh, you made some of these! I think they are really clever, but I don't have "sides" on my loom to hang them from ;(

bspinner said...

What a great idea!!! Thanks for sharing.

Peg in South Carolina said...

Leigh, I don't have sides either, but when I was using this kind of a setup I tied a heavy cord as tight as I could from front beam to back beam, put a cord through the safety pin (I didn't know about alligator clips then!), weighted it, and hung it over that cord going front to back. Not quite as good as what Laritza has done, but better than nothing at all.

Taueret said...

oh clever. thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

I don't have the sides either, so I screwed a small eyelet screw into the back side on each end of my front beam and ran a cord through each. One end has weights on it and the other has the clip. I also used a paper clip (unfolded) before the alligator clip.

Anonymous said...

Is Luvlane your little dog? Is she a Yorkie? Or Yorkie blend? What does it mean that her time is now? I have 4 litle Yorkies. They are the cutest! Rita