QUESTIONS ON PREPARING WARP BOUTS

Janice asked two questions about my warp preparation process: "I know you have used Angel Wings in the past. When do you put the lease sticks in those? Finally, why do you wind lots of small warp bouts rather than one or two larger ones?"

ANGEL WINGS

Angel Wings are an accessory made by Purrington Looms. They are designed to hold your lease sticks at either the front or the back beam while you warp the loom. Also, if you keep your lease sticks in while you weave, they are helpful To see what they look like, click here, go to accessories, and scroll down the page until you get to Angel Wings.

With my current warping technique I do not use Angel Wings. To use Angel Wings, the warp has to be level. When I am ready to beam on, I throw the warp up over the top of the loom. I trust that this will become clearer in future posts.

The last two warps I did not leave my lease sticks in while I wove. Instead, I left the raddle on the loom. This seemed to work very well.

WHY SMALL BOUTS?

I wind lots of small bouts because silk is very very slippery and delights in twisting around itself. Bombyx silk is what I am using and that is one of the most slippery silks there is. (I am using a silk that is even more slippery for the weft, however.)

This love of twisting was evident even in the stage of inserting rod and lease sticks. But sometimes when I get to the raddling, I see more twists that I hadn't caught at this first stage.

When I beam on, the warp continues to want to twist as it moves towards the lease sticks. Really really twists. I am continually untwisting. Even with choke ties on, those funky silk warps want to twist. This is where small bouts are invaluable. It is much much easier to control that twisting with small individual bouts than with large bouts.

Also, when I beam on, I attach weights to the warp bouts. With the small bouts of slippery yarn there is less chance of lengthwise slippage than there would be with large bouts.

In short, small bouts make for a better warp.