The state of the Bergman Loom

Once we got the loom set up into its most basic shape, a few things became evident.  The heddles were a mess.  The owner's husband told me that there were a "lifetime of heddles" in the box, but there were hardly any on the loom itself, less than 100, most were knotted and tangled, and there were just a few bundles in the box, I wouldn't have guessed more than 5 or 600 total.  I told him I currently kept about 1100 on my jack loom and he acted astounded, so before I even had it home, I knew heddles would be an issue.

The ad on Craigslist had also said that a partial conversion of the tieups had been done to TexSolv.  I didn't really know any better, the treadles were disconnected for travel anyways, and I knew nothing about countermarche tieups, so I just figured I'd learn from what had already been done.  I put it on a back burner, while I researched countermarche tieups, particularly Bergman.

A friend on Ravelry suggested getting underneath and just tying up like I would on my jack loom, and then assigning the rest of the spots after.  Well, that made sense, more than anything else, so I decided to climb under and see what I could make of it.  Aaaaaaaand... I discovered that the "conversion" was actually texsolv HEDDLES just hanging from the lamms.  No measurement had been done.  The old rope was actually still in the treadles.  I was starting with truly nothing, not even a clue of how the rope HAD been connected, once upon a time.  Panic set in.

I really couldn't make sense of the decision to use heddles.  There wasn't even a way to connect them to the treadle.  I learned from posting this picture online though, that I had actually put the treadle assembly in wrong.  The knots were the old bottom of the treadles, I had to pull off the bar, flip the treadles around, turn the bar 180 degrees and put it back in.

Once it was switched, I could see loops on top, which the old cords had been knotted to, and the little tape labels marked 1-10 to keep track of the treadle sequence.  One issue solved, but the bigger problem remained of what to do with the ties.




Many thanks need to be given to the Bergman Looms group on Facebook for the next part, because I was totally stumped.  The idea of countermarche looms being totally foreign, things weren't clicking.  My jack loom, you press a treadle, it lifts the appropriate shafts, and that forms the shed.  On a countermarche, you depress a treadle, and part of the shafts rise up, and some are pushed down.  In a nutshell, you do an initial tie up, to the lower lamms, and then go back and all of the blank spaces on a draft, you fill in with the upper lamms.  The lower lamms raise the shed, like a traditional jack loom would, and the upper lamms lower the shed creating more depth.  Once that was decoded, things started looking much clearer.

So I gathered some bravery, some texsolv, ordered some arrow pegs, and got to work.  The most important thing to keep in mind was really the jacks at the top needed to be locked.  We both did some minor adjustments later, after I had unlocked the top and it did NOT go well.  The cutting took time, but actually placing the pegs wasn't too awful.  Somewhere I had seen people putting one peg through both of the cords that went through each hole in the treadle, but once I started weaving, the arrow would slide out of one on some of the treadles, I found one peg per cord worked better than one peg per hole.

Tied up!

Shaft envy, looming up, and restoring a vintage loom

I really am hoping to document this process here, because it's been a fantastic learning experience for me and I hope to save some time for anyone else trying to do something similar.

I think most weavers have experienced what I refer to as "shaft envy", which sounds dirty, but really comes down to coming across a pattern or structure that is gorgeous, calls their name, and requires more shafts than their loom is capable of doing.  Probably part of why looms tend to breed so much.  While I hadn't even touched the tip of the iceberg on 4 shaft patterns to try, I kept stumbling into 8 shaft drafts that I wanted to do.  For the most part, I pushed it to the back of my mind, and continued to enjoy my Nilus.

I will get into the story later of the ill-fated warping reel/mill another day, but I had approval from Carl to find a warping mill and purchase it, because he wasn't going to make me another.  The biggest issue I'd been having with the Nilus though really was in warping.  Not only was I having a beast of a time getting longer warps on front to back (which I really feel like the Nilus is better suited for) but getting it packed appropriately to maintain tension on the selvedges was proving to be challenging.  So I kept going back and forth - should I try to upgrade my loom to a sectional, or should I look for one with more shafts that might potentially have a sectional or better warping setup?

During my time of debate, I came across a vintage Bergman loom on Craigslist.  $550 for the loom, 36" weaving width, 8 shafts, and it came with a warping reel.  I knew nothing about Bergmans, but I called and set up an appointment to come see it and make sure it would work for me.  I talked to the husband of the couple selling, he made sure I was a weaver, saying that it was complicated to set up and they wouldn't be able to help me after buying.  I explained that yes I was and that should be ok.

I went and just checked it over for damage, it had some reed rust but nothing I was concerned about, so I made arrangements to pick it up.

So now, not only did the loom take over my entire craft room, but now I lost half of my living room.  Sigh.

The new loom mostly "assembled" - unfolded at least to its full size.

Boat shuttles that came with the loom.  The 2 towards the front appear to be Bergman shuttles, from what I am finding around the internet.

A photo of my LeClerc Nilus for size comparison

The Bergman folded flat.  It's pretty ingenius, it gets tiny and is really not heavy.

Me next to the Bergman.  Taller, but with a much smaller footprint than the Nilus, not only in weaving width, but in depth.

The GIGANTIC warping reel, and the extras, including reeds that need some de-rusting.

Down the rabbit hole of weaving

Last year, as a reward to myself for getting into shape, I got a rigid heddle loom.  If you know me, or know a fiber artist in general, you can understand why this is a bad idea.

I'll just make some placemats.  Some scarves.  Little useful things for around the house.

I got my little loom, took a craftsy class.  Did a couple of things, and then had an epiphany.

See the Baby Banshee, she is very clingy.  She is worn constantly.  She loves her wraps and she loves being up.

When I realized how much fun weaving is, and that I could actually weave WRAPS.  I immediately went looking for a used multi-shaft loom.  Oregon is a rich crafting area, it took a couple weeks of watching Craigslist for me to come home with a beautiful 4-shaft Nilus loom with all I needed to weave wraps.  (Shuttle, winder, bobbins, tons of heddles, bench, warping board, etc.)  You can see how this is escalating rather quickly.

Before I knew it, I'd taken another craftsy class, ruined one warp, but managed to gather myself and weave a length I would chop up into headbands.

Completely hooked.  I still haven't even done placemats, or more towels, like I originally planned to make for the house.  All in good time, I suppose.

Finishing thoughts on the flats challenge

I'm a little late on summarizing, considering my patchy blogging in the past, that I'm even remembering to DO this is a big accomplishment, so here goes. 

Seeing how easily flats dried and the more intensive wash cycle and backlog of laundry we had when we were using just fluffy fitteds, well the challenge made a huge impact.  I haven't unpacked the fitteds yet.  Carl and I have each improvised our own folds we prefer on the baby and are still using flats the majority of the time.  I have started using the pockets I had set out as backup during the challenge but didn't use.  The inserts dry in almost the same amount of time as a flat and stuffing is very easy. 

What I disliked about the challenge, really the only issue I had, was the crunchy diapers.  I tried both liquid and powdered detergent, it was just the line drying that made for the crunchiness.  And the rain was a bit prohibitive towards the end with line drying - I could hang them above the washer but we would run out of space quickly the way Elowyn pees. 

At the very least, I expect we'll be sticking with flats through summer.  Cutting from two dry cycles down to one is a huge energy impact in the house.  They get so clean and now that we have the hang of them, it's just not an issue to keep using them right now.

I'm glad we ended up doing the flats challenge.  I like feeling comfortable handwashing now, and DEFINITELY feel like I can handle it camping or traveling in general.  I do really appreciate having the washing machine back though!

The challenge continues ... with a stomach bug :(

So Thursday came and went, and it's almost midnight and I'm just now sitting to write out how it's been going.  Eep!  Bug barely slept last night, waking up every 45 minutes to comfort nurse, and she was just too overheated.

Carl ended up doing yesterday's wash routine,  the baby was so dehydrated from the heat that there wasn't much to wash.  Almost all of the diapers we had were poopies, and I thank goodness for the diaper sprayer.  It is truly the most valuable diapering tool imaginable, and makes the actual washing SO much easier.  We've been using a Home Depot bucket and a plastic plunger from Fred Meyer, that I drilled holes in.  It cost a total of about $8, and it took me somewhere around a minute and a half to drill the holes.

Today's pictures brought to you by Pi :)

We normally use liquid Costco sensitive detergent on diapers, so we just use about 1 tsp of the soap for a batch of diapers, put in hot water from the tub, agitate for a few minutes.  Then rinse, re-agitate, and repeat until there are no real bubbles left.  It takes 2 or 3 times rinsing, and seems to work as well as, or better than the washing machine for getting them clean.  I'm not sure if it saves any water, with the extra rinses, but you can really SEE how clean they are. 

For drying, we have this clothesline from Amazon.  The way our yard is setup, there is no good place to hang a long clothesline, we have a lot of shade from our fruit trees and had to just pick a sunny corner to use, so this is what worked for us. It's only taken an extra 15-20 minutes a day to do this routine, and it's very organic feeling to go through this process.  If I could find a way to keep the diapers soft while on the line, I'd probably continue this indefinitely.  The one downside is the stiffer/rougher diapers.   Cleaning really is a breeze.

Flats Challenge is under way!

Day 2 of the Flats challenge and things have been going spectacularly well!  The wash goes very quickly and the kids think it's so interesting they keep asking to help.  (I'm sure if this was a real every day occurrence, they would not be so keen on it, but it still doesn't take much time at all). 

So far we've barely made a dent in our flats, although I'm keeping on top of the laundry.  A smaller load is easier to wash, so I'm not going to let it build up. 

Here is the view of today at the clothesline.  I went ahead and washed 2 of Elowyn's longies that needed it because it's so nice and warm out, they will dry up quickly.

So the question of today from Dirty Diaper Laundry is "What's in your stash and how much did it cost?"

Well I shared a stash shot before we started the challenge but I'll share the picture again:

They've been accumulated over a long period of time so this will be a bit difficult but here goes:

-2 dozen regular flats, bought through a coop.  These are the solid colors on the bottom right, and the natural on the bottom left.  $8.65 per dozen + $2 coop fee + shipping.  Approx. $25.

-1 dozen large flats, bought from a friend, originally through a coop.  These are the tie dyed on the bottom middle. $12.85.



-Osocozy flats from Cottonbabies.  They no longer carry these, but I found them here for $15 a dozen.  I don't have a dozen left, but I did at one point.

-Alva pocket diapers.  I have 14 total of these (some in the diaper bag) and they cost $3.50 each.  This is the most expensive part of the stash shown.  $49.  (I haven't yet used one since starting the challenge, but since I can easily stuff them with flats or use them multiple times with a trifolded flat tucked in like a cover, it's definitely an option I'm keeping open!

-1 Flip cover from Cottonbabies, and 1 Econobum cover from Cottonbabies. $14.95 and $11.95 respectively,  $26.90.

Not shown: a dozen gerber flats, they are AWFUL as diapers but work great as a doubler. I got them as a baby shower present, but for the sake of the challenge, let's count them in the cost.  $10.94 a dozen from the local WalMart.

The total cost then for the diapers and the covers shown here:  $139.69 - including the pockets I haven't yet touched.  Without the pockets, it's right around $90, and this is a several days' supply.  Living in Oregon, I'd DEFINITELY want several days worth of diapers, just because of the dry time.  I dye wool and sometimes in rainy season, it takes close to a week for it to fully dry.  Very very very reasonable for a stash of diapers!

Flats challenge!

I'm finally doing it, after years of saying I would and chickening out.  This year, I'm doing the flats and handwashing challenge.

Run by Dirty Diaper Laundry, it's a challenge to teach people diapering with the bare necessities.  No washer, no dryer.  Simple, cheap diapers.  It's to prove that anyone CAN cloth diaper, regardless of income. 

So why, other than being crazy, did I decide to do this challenge this year?

1.  We sometimes use disposables camping.  I get intimidated by laundry without a washer.  I'd like to move past that, and this will force me to get comfortable with it.

2.  This will make me figure out a dryer-free routine.  The dryer heats up our house in summer and saving even one load will save on our energy bills in a bigger way.  Bonus!  This is forcing us to put up a clothesline and USE it.

3. It's a post-apocalyptic life skill.  Zombies coming?  I can outlast them WITH the baby.

Changing table is cleared up and ready!!

Pockets with flats for stuffing, for overnight or errands, flats in 3 different sizes for regular use.