Friday, June 29, 2018

Introducing, the K-Series Loom

We are pleased to announce the official launch of the world's most advanced handloom for complex weaving, the K-Series Loom by AVL Looms.
Honoring AVL’s tradition of innovation, the K-Series introduces new and improved technologies and design that offer unmatched creative potential. For the first time treadling 40 shafts is not just made possible, it’s made easy. Warp movement works with you as you weave, and adjustments come with the tap of a button. Connecting your laptop, tablet, or phone is straightforward and instant. Technology assists where it needs to, and the weavers’ touch is left to shine.
We'll have two of these on-hand next week at Convergence. If you're attending, come by and check them out for yourself! For folks who can't make it to Convergence, please visit our site, where we have more information now available http://www.avlusa.com/catalog/looms/k-series-loom/


Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Convergence 2018 and an Important WeaveMaker Announcement


Convergence 2018

July 6-12 in Reno, NV

Can you believe Convergence is only two and a half weeks away?!?!  We’re thrilled that we’ll be in attendance with five looms (including two K-Series Looms) and numerous accessories available to try out in person.

If you’re in the Reno area, come down and visit us in the Vendor Marketplace!  We have day passes available, and can send them out to you in advance.  Just contact us and we’ll get them in the mail.

Already know you need some things from AVL and want to save on shipping charges? You're in luck!  Place your order** now for in-stock items, and we'll bring them with us to the conference.  As an added bonus, conference attendees receive a 10% discount!

A list of some popular in-stock items can be found here, including Warping WheelsElectric Bobbin Winders and End Feed Shuttles.  If you do not see the item(s) you're looking for, please contact our sales department and we'll do our best to accommodate your request, production schedule allowing. To place your order, contact us and mention that you'll pick up the item at Convergence.



We also have a demo-loom available in our pre-sale. This 40” A-Series Loom has 16 harnesses, Compu-Dobby 4.5, an overhead beater with a double flyshuttle box and auto advance.  It’s been a demonstration loom for us for several years, and is in good condition.  This loom is available at 20% off list price, provided that the buyer must take delivery Monday, July 9 after the show ends and will be responsible for transportation from the site. To inquire about this incredible offer, please contact us soon!

We’re looking forward to connecting with conference attendees in a couple weeks!


WeaveMaker Mi and Pro, End of Support


The WeaveMaker team and AVL Looms are preparing to end support of the WeaveMaker Mi and Pro software. This is being necessitated by lack of market interest and planned elimination of 32-bit application support for the Apple Mac OS. With the release of Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra, Apple announced the planned termination of 32-bit applications in the Mac environment. Apple’s termination schedule is projected as a warning whenever a 32-bit application is initiated in High Sierra, a more aggressive warning in the next OS iteration (likely coming this summer), and finally disallowing 32-bit applications thereafter. 

End of support for WeaveMaker on the Mac involves three phases and includes: cessation of software updates (effective immediately), stopping of sales (June 30, 2018), and finally the last renewals of time limited license keys (January 31, 2019). For those with time limited licenses, including universities and schools, the next renewals will be the last and the keys issued will be never ending. To renew your license key, please contact us

Notes:
  • Windows support and sales for WeaveMaker ceased during the 2017 calendar year. For those with time limited licenses in the Windows environment, your last chance for renewals is August 31, 2018. To renew your license key, please contact us.
  • The WeaveMaker (www.weavemaker.com) website will remain up, but it will not be monitored after January, 31, 2019. Attempts to contact the WeaveMaker team through the website will not be answered.



Friday, February 9, 2018


A-Series Assembly Videos--Now Available on YouTube

We're happy to announce that our A-Series Assembly series of videos is now available on YouTube.  The numbers on the video titles roughly correspond to the Basics of Assembly section on pages 7-8 in the recently updated assembly manual (available for download here).  

Sectional Warping Sale

In need of another sectional beam or additional hoops for your existing beam?  Been thinking about trying out a Warping Wheel?  Now is the time!  Now through February 28, save 10% off eligible sectional warping items in our e-shop. Be sure to enter code SECTIONALSALE when you checkout to activate the savings.

School's in Session this April with Jannie Taylor

We have a few seats still available for our April 9-11 offering of Maximizing Your AVL, and lots of availability in WeavePoint for Tied Weaves April 12-13.  These classes are hosted at our headquarters in beautiful Chico, California, and instruction is somewhat customizable, based on student needs identified through a pre-class quenstionnaire.

Maximizing Your AVL is designed for new AVL weavers or for weavers who want to better learn the systems on their AVL looms.  This course will guide you through the design rationale for each system on the loom and will provide special training in its use and maintenance.  Emphasis will be given to sectional warping technique (with both the tension box and Warping Wheel), flyshuttle weaving, and use of the Compu-DobbyⓇ. In addition, we include a unit that covers basic use of WeavePoint, our premier weaving software package. 

In WeavePoint for Tied Weaves, Jannie covers the skills necessary for designing any tied weave; from understanding the basic structure of tied weaves to using the many special tools found in WeavePoint to make creating this type of draft quick and easy. 

If you have any questions regarding these or our other class offerings, please contact us and we'll be happy to help!  

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Pre-Owned Looms Clearance


Starting now, we're offering 15% off of select in-stock, pre-owned looms! Each loom has been thoroughly inspected and comes with a 1 Year AVL Factory Reconditioned Loom Warranty.

This limited time offer is good through Friday, February 23 and eligible pre-owned looms can be viewed here.  To activate the 15% savings be sure to use WINTERCLEARANCE at checkout or mention the sale when talking with your AVL Looms sales rep.


Friday, December 15, 2017

A-Series Manual Updated and Holiday Hours


A-Series Manual Updated


We are pleased to announce that our A-Series assembly and weaving manuals have been revised and are available for download now!  A special thanks to Amy for all of her hard work on this project.  To see the updated version, please see the Manuals, Instructions & Info of our AVL Online Library here.

Holiday Availability

Our front offices will be closed from Friday, December 22 through Monday, January 1 for the Holidays, and will return all calls and e-mails as soon as possible after they return on Tuesday, January 2.  From all of us at AVL Looms to you, Happy Holidays!

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

110 Yards of Towels and Patent Denters Have Returned!

40th Anniversary Towels--The Finale

It's official, the towels are done!  All 110 yards of them...  Whoa, that was a lot of fabric. Let's take a look back to where we left-off last spring, with threading the project.


Jannie and Melody working together to thread the IDL.

Preparing the Loom

Threading went fairly smoothly, with Jannie and Melody completing it in a couple of days while they were here earlier this year.  Having two people definitely made it go easier--Jannie sat inside the loom with her laptop on a stand and handed the threads through to Melody. The draft included a 16 shaft Echo & Iris inspired design, and 8 shafts of letter design.

Here you can see the selvage roller with blue thread attached to the track and mount.  We had to cut two ends off of our left selvage, seen here winding around two empty cones, and had a loose thread mid-warp which we weighted with a screwdriver.

Over the next few weeks, work progressed slowly, as time was available.  Once we got it tied-on and ready for testing, we discovered we had a missing thread mid-warp.  To remedy the issue, the track and mount was put on the rear of the loom and a Selvage Roller was attached.  We used the roller to slowly release under tension the yarn needed for the missing end.

Time to Weave!

With the help of our engineer Kim, we were finally able to get the automatic cloth advance dialed-in, and we were up and weaving!  Due to staff scheduling conflicts, weaving time was sporadic over the next couple of months, happening in small intervals as time was available.


To keep things rolling along when we did have time to run the loom, we used an Automatic Bobbin Winder to wind the pirns for the flyshuttles.  It took a little finessing to get the tension just right with our 10/2 mercerized cotton weft, but Jannie and Scott were able to get it figured out pretty quickly.  We also made use of a set of Rotary Temples to keep our edges nice and neat as weaving progressed.

Rotary Temples helped to minimize draw-in

Growing-Pains


It wasn't necessarily smooth sailing through the whole process, and we hit some bumps along the way. 

When winding-on, there was some variation in the tension on the outer two sections.  To compensate, we had to cut-off after short runs as we started up, and there was a lot of combing the warp back from the heddles as it advanced. 


Oops!  Perhaps the warp tension was a *tad* too high...
Early-on, we also had a problem with the separation roller due to user errror.  Drawing from my previous weaving experience using a non-AVL loom with a locking break, I fell-back on an ill-advised, brute-force fix by continuing to crank up the warp tension to adjust the pick density and to attempt to control some unwieldy ends. The ever increasing, overzealous tension resulted in the inner rod bending on the separation roller. Once this issue was discovered, the rod was replaced and Kim showed me how to finesse the pick density by adjusting the automatic cloth advance.

We couldn't have done this without help, thank you!

We would like to again thank Shuttles & Needles for graciously providing the yarn, Eleni for letting us run the towels on her loom (which we understand has been recently named Cone Slayer), Melody for coming to help with the set up work and Jannie for setup and finishing (each towel was finished by Jannie and she made some lovely, matching hangtags too).  Also, thanks are due to our staff who worked on this project--Scott, Kim, Aaron, Amy for their help in getting the loom prepped and keeping it running towards the end as our deadline approached.

Trimming towels while the IDL runs nearby.

Weaving 110 yards was an adventure, a fabulous learning experience and something that I wouldn't shy-away from doing again.  Thanks for following along!

Happy Weaving!

Ashley
Marketing Manager




Patent Denters 


We are pleased to announce that we have new patent denters now in stock. Now offered in two sizes (10-14 dent and 15-20 dent), this updated version still makes sleying your reed a breeze as it travels from dent to dent as you work. To watch our video on how to use the patent denter, please click here.  This video features our old model of patent denter, however the technique is much the same.

These amazing tools have been added to our Holiday Sale here--be sure to enter the code 10OFFDEC for 10% off your eligible items at checkout!

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

EBW Auto Tensioner and AVL Weaving School January Classes, and CONVERGENCE 2018

Auto-Tensioner for the Electric Bobbin Winder

Tired of yarn burn on your fingers and hands? Tired of wearing that glove? Tired of inconsistent tension on your bobbins?  Try adding the Auto-Tensioner to your AVL Electric Bobbin Winder!  Easy to install, this small, adjustable tensioner mounts on the Thread Guide Assembly to give you an effortless way to fill your bobbins, spools and pirns comfortably and efficiently.  Click here for a link to a short video we posted a couple weeks ago on our Facebook page, featuring the Auto-Tensioner.  This item is one of many discounted in our Holiday Sale--click here to see what items are included and be sure to use the code 10OFFDEC at checkout to get 10% off eligible items!

AVL Weaving School--January Classes


There is still some availability in our upcoming offerings of Maximize Your AVL on January 22-24 and WeavePoint for Echo & Iris on January 25-26, both taught by the incomparable Jannie Taylor here at our headquarters in beautiful Chico, CA.  We hope you'll join us!

Convergence 2018

We've booked our rooms and are looking forward to Convergence 2018 in Reno, NV!  We're thrilled that it's practically in our backyard this year, and we hope to see you there!!

Holiday Office Closure

Our front office will be temporarily closed from Tuesday, November 21 through Sunday, November 26 for the holiday.  We will reopen on Monday, November 27 and will return all phone calls and e-mails as soon as we're able.  From all of us to you, we hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!