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Description
Warping up a loom, or preparing it to weave a new fabric, involved working several hundred threads through each individual dent in the heddles and reed. Instead of dismantling the entire warp after finishing a project, weavers saved time by detaching the reed, heddles, and a portion of warp fabric from the loom. They kept this assemblage, called “gears,” until they wove that cloth again. This way, when the weaver wanted to revisit a pattern, they simply had to put the gears back on the loom, tie each new thread to the end of one of one of the old ones, and pull it though to the proper place. This particular set of gears is set up to weave a muted dark blue carpet. The reed has 250 spaces, or dents, and is made in the German style, with black reeds marking groups of dents. They are marked "C. Neumeyer." The heddle strings are heavily varnished.