I hope someone can tell me what is going on. I have my David loom dressed for 8 shaft block double weave. I followed the threading and tie-up (tie up for sinking shed) to the letter, but for some reason I can't weave Block B. There are floats. Block A is fine. At first I thought maybe I accidentally tied up the shafts that have x in them, but I didn't. I have checked everything a zillion times. At the moment I have decided that I will just use Block A. I have done one and a half placemats and they look fine, but I really want to know what the heck is going on with this. I am thinking that when it is time to change the tie-up, I will just do the rising shed version knowing it will be opposite of what I am seeing.

I am not new to double weave. I have taken Jennifer Moore's class, and I have made many blankets, but this is vexing.
Any ideas?

I had the same problem….and triple checked…..and still had it. Well, quadruple checking revealed that one of the Texsolv chords had come off the screw on the treadle for shaft 8 I think. It was hanging in the right place so it looked like it was connected but it wasn’t. I haven’t taken the screwdriver to adjust the screws to be a tiny bit further out but I keep thinking I will try that.

I thought of that, and have quadruple checked but they are all connected the way they should be.

Hi Deb,
The floats on your B blocks, how many threads are they going over? Also, are the floats vertical? Just trying to think this out ;)

Hi Deb,
Can you send us a photo to see if we can figure this out?

Thanks everyone. And I will send a photo tomorrow. I’ve just been weaving with A block for now, and I like what I’m getting, but I really want to figure this out. 🥰

OK...Here we go.

I tried to get as close as I could, so it is a bit blurry. I also ran a stick through to show where the floats are on the B blocks.
While I was out there, I rechecked all the treadles. So, any ideas?

yes, and that is the first thing I did. I thought perhaps it was threaded wrong, but it is correct as far as I can see.

Well, they are pretty consistent! So, frustrating for you!

Do you know if they are also causing floats on the back (underside) of the A Blocks?

Let's focus on the red/pale orange B block and see if we can find out what is happening.

You have double checked the tie-up and the threading. Block A is good, so we just need to worry about what is happening on shafts 5,6,7,8. All the red threads are on shafts 6 and 8 and all the pale orange threads are on shafts 5 and 7. And one treadle will lift just shaft 6 for the first half of the plain weave red on top, (by sinking all the other shafts) and another treadle will lift just shaft 8 for the second half of the plain weave red on top. (by sinking all the other shafts.)

You should be getting a nice plain weave, over one, under one with the red on top. But those darn floats are not cooperating.

Let's focus on the red/pale orange block to zero in on what is happening.

What shaft are the floating threads threaded through? These threads are obviously up when they are supposed to be up, and staying up and not sinking when they are supposed to be down.

What happens when you raise the checking sheds? Do all the red threads lift and all the orange threads lower? Do the red threads all rise to the same level?
When you treadle the opposite checking shed do all the orange threads lift and all the red threads lower? Do they lower to the same level?

If all your red threads are not rising to the same level, or sinking to the same level, then you may need to adjust the length of your tie-up cords, and move up one or down one texsolv hole on one of the treadles.

If nothing looks amiss, then try lifting just one shaft at a time to see what is happening. You are obviously getting a nice plain weave when the pale orange block is on top, but not getting a nice plain weave when the red block is on top.

So, if you lift shaft 6 by itself every other red thread should lift. If you lift shaft 8 by itself, every other red thread (that didn't lift the first time) should lift.

I also had a problem on one loom that I owned where a shaft was sticking in the active position, and not returning to the neutral position when it was supposed to,. Then when I changed sheds, it caused the floats to happen, so see if this is the case here.

Hopefully this will zero in on what is happening, or not happening.

I really want this to work for you, Deb, so let us know if these tips help solve the problem.

Thank you so much for taking so much time to help me, Barbara.
Tomorrow I will go line by line in your instructions and see what is going on. I will report back as soon as I can. 🥰🥰🥰

Hi Diane,
I take seriously your feedback.

I just went in to Fibreworks and recreated the draft on page 3 for the 8-shaft placemats, but I don't have any floats showing up. If you could let me know what specifically tie-up treadle you think is wrong, then we can send out a revision. But I'm not seeing it.
On the PDF for the runner and tote bags, the PDF on page 3, this is the draft for the 8-shaft runner. To make the tote bag on 8 shafts you need to use the same draft as for the napkins, shown on page 19 of the 8-shaft PDF.

Problem solved!
I went through each treadle to see what colors were doing what…
B1: peacock, gold AND apricot, navy, red AND orange, purple AND magenta.
B2: peacock, olive, gold, navy, AND purple, red, magenta
B3: peacock, gold AND apricot, navy, red AND orange, navy, purple AND magenta.
B4: peacock AND olive, gold, navy AND purple , orange, navy AND purple

So… something was not right. And even though I have checked the tie up a million times, I crawled down there and took them all off and retied. I think one problem might have been the one of the cords was on the wrong side of center and was pulling, because before I retied, I noticed when I pressed on one of the treadles, it was catching one of the others.
Now it is fine! I feel like a fool, and I apologize for wasting everyone’s time on this.
Thank you for all your expertise and sleuthing. I am forever grateful. Maybe this is my penance for taking a weaving break to remodel a kitchen! 🤗🤗🤗

So happy it got sorted! And that is exactly what the forum is for - so we can all learn together. There could be many other weavers with the same questions, but not brave enough to ask.

And Diane, thanks for your input - we do have to go through all of the maybe's before we can get to the yes!

Glad you got it resolved! Happy weaving. I love this project (warp #2 even longer now on the loom).