Excitement of the Wrong Kind

Yesterday, I dove into the ranunculus. Here's a photo at about 500 picks (about 1/3 of the total picks):

I decided to substitute a light pink yarn for the white in the original image, and I'm not sure I really like the effect. I may weave the image again someday with white; it depends on how well I like this version once it's woven and wet finished.

Anyway, at about 800 picks, I heard a loud, sharp crack and module 6 dropped all of its heddles at once. Another lifting cable had broken. The cable for module 8 gave up the ghost in mid-July; I guess the cables on the oldest modules (the eight in the middle of the array) are reaching their expiration date.

In January of 2011, DH installed a pick counter attached to the lifting mechanism, which uses a magnet and a sensor to detect each time a lift happens. At the time, we guesstimated that I'd woven approximately 22,500 picks, but I suspect that was a low-ball estimate. According to the counter, I've woven over 154,000 picks since then, for a total of over 175,000 picks. Which means the cables that lift the hooks, heddles, and knives have gotten a lot of exercise. (A typical piece is between 1,200 and 1,600 picks, so that's a lot of weaving!)

Thank heavens for the inhouse engineer! After the first cable failure, we asked AVL to send a set of spare cables, which arrived in early August. DH had a replacement cable installed in about 30 minutes, and I wove a few picks to test the installation while he watched, to ensure the cable was correctly routed around all its pulleys and clamps. While he worked, I wrote up an installation procedure, which should make it quicker and easier to install the next replacement...

My first task today is to do a visual inspection of the lifting cables on the other 6 of the older modules, to see which ones are showing signs of wear and tear. Then I can weave the rest of the ranunculus piece.