BEAMING ON

Posted by Peg in South Carolin

I’m done raddling.  I’ve attached the warp rod to the apron rod.  I did that by bringing up the apron rod so that it rested on the table.  At each end of that rod (not in the photo) I have a piece of texsolv cord.  I slip the end of the warp rod into the holes of the texsolv.  Then I tie the rods together at several other places, using heavy cord.  The reason for the texsolv is primarily that it helps me keep the two rods spaced evenly apart.

The warp yarns are a little wonky right now.  I will get that straightened out before I continue.

There is something else I need to do before I wind on.  I need to throw the warp over the castle. Once over the castle I weight each bout individually.  Normally I have always made slip knots and attach the weights to them.  But I noticed that the red bag savers I use have holes in them, and I can fit my weights through the holes.  So I decided to try that.

At this point I notice something.  Yup, a twisted bout.  Twisted bouts are really easy to spot with the colored stripes.  That is good because it will happen all the time as I beam on, so I will be spending time straightening bouts as well as winding on.

At this point I can begin to wind on.

The first thing I have to do is to get the rods onto the beam itself. I wind the beam with my left hand and hold onto the rod gingerly with my left hand as it moves off the table down onto the warp beam itself.  This requires a bit of calisthenics as the handle to turn the rod is on the left side and the loom weaves 45” wide, which means it is actually a bit wider than that.  So I am stretched a bit as I do this.

It is very important that I do this carefully. I want the warp rod and the apron rod, when they get themselves on the beam, to be absolutely parallel to the beam and to be an equal distant apart.  It went easily this time.  Sometimes it takes a bit more work.

Notice that the warp ends still need to be moved and adjusted a bit.

And now I am ready to beam on. 

My new way of hanging weights worked well except that I learned I had to check for ends coming loose.  If I could really carefully flatten out those warps, this would be a perfect setup.  But I didn’t so that the places where I attached the weights were usually a bit bumpy.  The flatter parts then would not get held as well because the grip is really not that strong.  Still, the flattening out of the warp that did result did create a warp much easier to wind on. 

And here she is, ready for threading.

 

Related Posts: 
Recent Comments and Questions
Question on Untwisting Warp Bouts
Winding on the Warp
 

"Beaming On" was written by Margaret Carpenter for Talking about Weaving and was originally posted on November 05, 2008. © 2008 Margaret Carpenter aka Peg in South Carolina