More on False Crosses

I received a couple of good questions on my earlier discussion of crosses and false crosses.

Leigh asked: "Aren't [false crosses] the result of using a warping paddle...?"

The answer is "yes." However, my guess is that they would occur if you warped with more than one thread but using your fingers to separate them and then to create the thread-by-thread cross at the cross end of the warp. A paddle is just a bit more efficient than fingers and you can work with more than four ends, which is the maximum you could use with fingers.

Indeed, if you set up a rigid heddle (the hole-and-slot kind found on rigid heddle looms) instead of a paddle to make the crosses, you could wind even more threads than the paddle allows.

FALSE CROSS WITH A SINGLE END

Also, a false cross will occur if you wind incorrectly with only a single end. I have tried to use a lime-green line to indicate the path the thread would take if you made the cross correctly. Clicking on the photos will result in a larger and clearer picture of the lime-green line.

After making the cross (correctly shown by the actual crossed red threads on the right), you draw the yarn (now the lime-green line) straight across to the top of the peg on the left, go around and under that peg under the peg to its right and than continue with the making the second half of the cross.
Some people do not do this. And some people do it correctly but occasionally make a mistake. The mistake is shown in the following photo, again indicated by the lime-green line. Here, instead of continuing with the yarn straight across, the yarn is brought to the underside of that first peg, then around it to the top, then back to the right and down to the underside of the second peg on the right.

MULTIPLE ENDS WITH NO FALSE CROSS

Anonymous asked another question:

"Peg, please describe in detail how the false cross occurs, I just can't figure it out. I almost always wind warps with multiple ends "in-hand" and have never had or seen a false cross."

I am afraid I can't explain how the false cross occurs. The next time I make a warp I will try to analyze what is actually going on.

What I can't figure out is why you don't get one! My guess is that you are literally carrying the ends "in-hand." I interpret that to mean that you are treating them as a single yarn. What this would mean is that you are not separating out the individual ends to make thread by thread crosses but are treating them as a single end and so making a group cross. Making a group cross would create no problem of a false cross between those first two pegs.