Candy Cane Christmas Design

This design caught my attention while reading Ravelry.com Warped Weavers.  It is the perfect design to weave for Christmas.  There are versions for 4 shaft and 8 shaft drafts, but I enlarged the design for   16 shafts because I wanted to weave a table runner and placemats.

The basic draft is an undulating twill where the color placement creates the candy cane effect.  If you play around with the color placement you can create many designs from this draft.  It is easy to weave since you only use one color in the weft and it is a simple treading.

I warped the loom with 8/2 Cotton and added red Lurex to the red cotton stripe.  It gives it a nice shine, but the Lurex does not shrink.  This created some bumps in the finished fabric which I do not like and would not do it again.

I used several different yarns for the weft.  First I used Linen for a table runner.  The second runner I used 8/2 Cotton and the placemats I used 3/2 Cotton.  I liked the 8/2 cotton results the best.

This is a draft that I will definitely weave again.  I think I will use the 8 shaft draft to create dish towels.  There is a front and back to this design.  The green stripe on the front has a nicer look on the front of the draft than on the back.

Assembling the AVL

About a week prior to shipping, AVL contacted me for the balance of the loom.

Two weeks later the shipping company contacted me to schedule delivery.  The driver called about 10 minutes before arriving.

The loom and warping wheel comprised 11 large boxes, shrink-wrapped on a pallet.  The driver put the pallet in my garage.  I looked over the boxes, confirmed that there were 11 and looked for obvious damage to the boxes.  If there was any damage it needs to be noted on the driver's documents and pictures should be taken to document it.  The driver can not wait for you to open the boxes and check for damage, but if you see anything wrong with a box it should be noted.

The first thing I did was cut off the shrink-wrap and start to unpack the boxes.  Each box was numbered and what was in them was notated on the box.  As I started opening the boxes I could see that they were packed very well.  There was a packing list in each box and most items were numbered or identified.

I kept each box's contents together and marked off each item on the packing list.  This helped with assembly later.

My sister came over to help me put the loom together.  Two people are needed to get the main structure together.  We worked about 6 hours that day, less lunch and moving my old loom upstairs.

The loom comes with a binder with assembly instructions.  They go step by step and explain things well.  There are plenty of pictures, although I wish there were a few more photos showing the entire loom rather that just pictures of the part you are working on.  It was easy to put together.

As we put together the loom I kept looking at all the parts, most looked new.  The only parts I could tell were used were the main structure of the loom.  The wooden structural parts.  Other than that everything was new.  The beams, aprons, cords, reed, even most of the Texslov heddles.  I was really happy with the loom.

It took two more days to get the loom assembled.  Putting the heddles on the bars is time consuming. Assembling the beater, putting on the auto advance etc. all takes time.

If anyone asks me about purchasing a pre-owned loom from AVL I would say, without hesitation, definitely do it.  I don't know if my experience is normal, but I think AVL does everything to make the loom as problem free as possible.  Plus, they are a phone call or email away if you have problems or questions.