Weaving Woes

Check it out! I've been having some challenges with my weaving. Do you see the position of the bar that holds my back-beam? It is set at a notch other than the very end. I have never intentionally done that until now! It turns out (thank you very much, Joanne Hall for your tips on improving Jack loom sheds!) that one way to get a better shed with inelastic fibers--rayon in this case--is to raise the back beam.

I discovered I had a problem with this warp (6-ply rayon, 20 epi) when every other pass with the weft was catching warp threads that were supposed to be down! Then I realized that the warp threads were rising (1/4" or so) off the shuttle track of the beater/reed when I depressed treadles.
Things are working much better now with the back beam closer and higher. I can't weave much--I have to advance every 1.5-2", but it works and looks great! There is a subtle check pattern (twill+broken twill) if you look closely at the photo.














Weaving Woe #2.

If you have two looms then you can have two woes, right? This one is a case of too much draw in for the poor selvage threads to handle. They are just getting scraped more than they can bear. I'm at the point where I am just going to weave as much as I can (I've stopped repairing the broken threads!) and cut it off the loom. It is supposed to be a shawl for a friend....but I'm not giving it to anybody until I take a good look at the edges....it might have to end up in the "fabric stash" and not in the good enough for a gift stack.